What Lies We Keep

Janet Roberts

Porch Swing Publishing LLC, Aug 2, 2025 - Fiction - 338 pages

Cyber security expert, Ted McCord, has been fired. He risked everything in a game far beyond his control. 

Charlotte McCord never understood her husband’s addiction to the trappings of corporate life - the titles, the money, the promise of visible success he sees as opposite his Montana upbringing. Ted uncovered an embezzlement scheme, did something unthinkable to gain a promotion, and hid his actions from his wife. Then the guilty co-conspirators turned the tables on him. Charlotte leaves, taking their daughter. As Ted works to clear his name, Charlotte leans on her friends. But one friend’s secret shocks Charlotte, upending everything she believes about Ted. Unsure who to trust, she jettisons from hurt and anger to the tempting promise of solace in the arms of a handsome River Rescue officer.

Stretching from Pittsburgh’s urban skyline to the beautiful ranch country of Montana, What Lies We Keep is a moving story of corporate ambition that shakes the very foundations of a marriage and asks: What happens when we embrace the life we think we should have rather than the life we have?

About the author

Janet Roberts writes character driven, contemporary fiction where domestic suspense intertwines with cybersecurity. Her books are set wholly or partially in Western Pennsylvania, where her roots run deep. Its lush green mountains, warm sunny beaches, and salt of the earth kind of people populate her writing as they do her life. Her readers know to expect a female character that is on a journey of self-discovery resulting in the awakening of her own inner strength and power through facing adversity. Reviews have termed her writing cinematic, brilliant and fresh prose, and authentic and relatable characters, with themes of forgiveness, redemption, and the unleashing of personal power that readers can relate to. Janet is the award winning author of What Lies We Keep, a cybersecurity thriller with domestic suspense which was a Finalist for the 2024 Hawthorne Award and winner of the 2024 Silver Medal for Fiction from Literary Titan. Her first two novels, The Narrow Gate and The Leaf Queen, won 1st Place - Fiction from Pittsburgh's The Author Zone (TAZ). Her memoir Seven Thin Dimes (2015), received a TAZ Honorable Mention. She also wrote What Lies We Keep. Her poetry has been published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and in San Fedele Press¿ Art in the Time of COVID-19. She is a member of Women¿s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA) and Pennwriters. A former global leader in cybersecurity education and awareness with over a decade of experience, she lives in Pittsburgh, PA, where Frick Park is her favorite place for a hike. She loves to travel and has never met a library, bookstore, or ice cream shop she didn¿t like.

Bibliographic information

• Title: What Lies We Keep
• Author: Janet Roberts
• Publisher: Porch Swing Publishing LLC, 2025
• ISBN: 0997389664, 9780997389661
• Length: 338 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Thrillers / Domestic; Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense; True Crime / Cybercrime