5*s
A character led psychological thriller that packs a real punch.
Joe and Hannah Marsden’s fourteen year old daughter has disappeared. Lily hasn’t returned from school and although at first the police were sure she’d turn up soon we first meet Joe as he returns from giving a press conference to appeal for her to get in touch. Hannah didn’t attend, doesn’t want Joe near her and anyway we all know that the police watch the behaviour of those who are part of the televised appeals.
Loretta is the Family Liaison Officer assigned to the Marsden family there to support them through the difficult time, but also to observe, and there is plenty of observations to make that’s for sure. Hannah is distraught, completely poleaxed by her grief whereas Joe secretly wants to escape the confines of the now claustrophobic house but he also wants to know what has happened to Lily.
Our final narrator is Rosie Weatherall, a mysterious addition to the storyline, she is watching the news story of Lily’s disappearance unfold with horrified interest as it reminds her of the disappearance of her elder sister Alice. Rosie’s father has recently been released from prison, convicted of killing Alice fifteen years previously. After struggling to accept that her adored father, a widely respected classical musician could have ever committed such a crime, her mother finally convinced her that it was the case, the evidence was squarely against him.
With secrets bursting to be set free, Her Deadly Secret makes for full-on compulsive reading ably assisted by our three brilliant narrators; Loretta, Joe and Rosie. All three are searching for the truth but that’s not easy when those in the know are masters of deception.
A good psychological thriller has characters you can believe in, even when they may behave in strange ways due to the abnormal circumstances they are plunged into. I absolutely believed, although of course my suspicions were on high alert for criminal behaviour, that these were genuine people. Books in this sub-genre should also follow the unwritten rules of crime writing that the outcome can’t come out of left-field. It is even better when there are some red-herrings to keep the reader wondering. I’m pleased to state that all these conditions were met, and more. Even the minor characters, such as Lily’s own secret boyfriend was believable all the more so because many of these held conflicted beliefs which is always one of the biggest problems for a writer to convey without losing credibility for their creations. But we all can believe one thing, whilst suspecting another from time to time, people generally struggle with two conflicting views are presented to them. This is illustrated through one character in the book, who reports another to the police, and then soon apologises to the suspect, realising that what she thinks she saw, could have in fact been viewed in an alternative way. There are many more such examples which for me only had me all the more wrapped up in the family’s nightmare. Added to that was the wonderful backdrop of Hastings, Loretta’s family life and a religious community called The Children of Light which all served to round this off as an immersive read.
I’d like to thank the author and publishers HaperCollins UK for providing me with a copy of Her Deadly Secret, this honest review is my belated thanks to them for the book and the brilliant reading experience which examines the ripples caused for years when a child is murdered. Back in July when Her Deadly Secret was published, the author kindly wrote a guest post for me on how she finds inspiration for her books which you can read here. If you like the sound of this book, it is currently at a bargain price in eBook format so I’d snap it up quickly while I will be adding the author’s previous two books, Mindsight and Her Turn to Cry to my wishlist.
First Published UK: 21 July 2017
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
No. of Pages: 304
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Great review Cleo. It does sound totally interesting and brilliant!
Thank you Nikola 🙂
Great review Cleo. I might *coughs* have just clicked on the buy button for this!
😂 Thank you
So glad you enjoyed this one, Cleo. Character development is so important in a psychological mystery/thriller like this one, so it’s good to hear that these characters are well-developed and strong.
You’re right Margot and this was far better executed than I expected with many strands of storyline and characters coming together.
Great review! I love books with characters I can enjoy, while also wondering if they might be guilty of something, even if it’s just a few dark secrets. This kind of story keeps me going until the ending which might surprise me, even if I suspected the perpetrator. Thanks for sharing.
You’ve hit the nail on the head – although I’m typically rubbish at working out the perpetrator, when the characters have secrets then I want to (or in fact need to) know what they are!
I’ll never get used to pink for psychological thrillers covers, but what a review, and what a book!
Thank you so much Meggy 🙂
Good point about the importance of following the rules of this genre. I hate books which introduce a solution only possible if you are inside the authors head.