Alan Grofield is career criminal and professional thief. But he yearns for a career in theater. While Grofield is handsome and charming, his main passion–life on the Stage–remains elusive. Hence, Grofield’s involvement with professional thief, Parker. Grofield owns a summer stock company based in Mead Grove, Indiana which struggles to survive. He takes part in heists to get the money to keep his theatre company running,.

During the events of The Score, Grofield met his future wife and acting partner, Mary Deegan–a hostage taken during the heist in that novel. Surprisingly, Deegan insists on staying with Grofield after the heist. In Lemons Never Lie, Deegan helps Grofield run his summer stock theater and even stars as his leading lady.

Grofield appeared in eight out of twenty-eight Richard Stark novels–I’ve read them all. In Lemons Never Lie, Grofield is working at his own small theater and talking to Mary Deegan about plays they might put on and the actors they might recruit…if they had the money. That’s why Grofield considers a caper when Andrew Myers presents a plan to knock over a brewery. Grofield considers this heist unworkable and walks out on Meyers. This triggers a cascade of violence and retribution.  

Lemons Never Lie is a much darker novel than The Damsel, The Dame, and The Blackbird. But I consider Lemons Never Lie the best of the Alan Grofield books. Don’t miss it in this wonderful new Hard Case Crime edition! GRADE: A