While Claire is sitting at her desk, a bomb goes off not far away in downtown Birmingham at the offices of Dr. Marcus Freedman, a black professor currently running for mayor. While Freedman was away from the office and remains unharmed, his white campaign manager, Jason O'Dell, is killed, leaving behind an 8-month-old baby girl named Maddie, who becomes Claire's charge. While Claire uses all of her resources to track down additional family for the infant, as O'Dell didn't list emergency contacts, she is soon stunned to discover that the baby's father was really Jason Alsbrook, son of the local millionaire and mining magnate, James Alsbrook. Since Alsbrook Mining is well known for having a very unsafe workplace and numerous miners have been injured or lost their lives over the years because Alsbrook won't address ongoing issues, could the actual target have been Jason, as punishment for his father?
Claire enlists the aid of handsome friend and newspaper journalist Kirk Mahoney, and the pair start digging into those wronged by the company, along with what remains of the Alsbrook family. It seems James and his meek wife, Patricia only had the one son, and James makes it quite clear that he has no interest in meeting his only grandchild, as she was the result of a biracial relationship, while Patricia clearly feels otherwise, but remains silent.
Luckily for Maddie, the parents of her deceased mother, Tameka, are more than happy to care for their beloved grandchild. But will Maddie be safe there or will she remain a potential target?
Claire and Kirk also do some digging into Mourning Miners, a group started by a woman after her son perished in one of Alsbrook's mines. It seems there's a long list of wronged families that could be potential suspects. To complicate matters, Marcus Freedman has been receiving death threat letters that, for the most part, appear to be written by an illiterate racist. However, it is very clear that the organized person who bombed his office is not the same redneck writing these threats.
As if that won't keep Claire busy enough, LaReesa Jones, a 13-year-old girl she befriended previously, has been missing for the last few months, only to turn up in the middle of the night at DHS, asking for Claire. Against policy, Claire takes the girl home with her, surprising her live-in boyfriend, computer programmer Grant Summerville. Despite the fact that it will greatly complicate her life, Claire decides to make it official and foster Reese, but again, she really doesn't consult Grant on this, which doesn't do great things for their already "roommate-like" current relationship. And if that isn't bad enough, she finds herself spending too much time running down leads with Kirk, who is incredibly attractive and makes sure to show his interest in her every time they speak or meet.
Claire's life just became a dangerous juggling act on all sides, and that's before she finds herself face to face with the bomber or has a gun pointed in her face... and not even in the same moment!
Little White Lies is a fairly quick read and I enjoyed it. While it has a few tense moments, it's not really a thriller. I'd classify it as more of a drama with lots of family aspects that is built along the lines of a mystery involving one of Claire's charges. Overall, I liked it and I'd read another book in this series. It'd be a great summer vacation read.
