Little Secrets

It's no secret that Little Secrets is going to be on everyone's Summer Reading list.

This fast-paced and absorbing read delves into the murky depths of marriage, devastating loss, friendship and deception as a couple deals with the abduction of their four-year-old son. The story is told using two female POVs and includes several twists (some I saw coming, some I didn't). But for me, it was the attention Hillier gave to developing her characters and the emotional glimpses into the lives of people whose children have been abducted, that truly gripped me.

The characters are a mixed bag of dysfunction, but all are well-developed and no one comes off squeaky clean. From parents Marin and Derek whose moral compasses don't point due north, to secondary characters who throw some curve balls into the mix to the tertiary characters in Marin's support group, their stories, deceptions and experiences bring a real depth to the story than you might not expect from a psychological thriller. I particularly appreciated how Hillier shows how differently Marin and Derek experience the loss of their child.

While not as dark as Hillier's earlier books, Jar of Hearts or The Butcher, this story has its emotional moments and is filled with good twists and fascinating deception that will keep readers guessing and compulsively turning pages. I cannot wait for Hillier's next book.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Minotaur Books for the complimentary copy they sent me, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Jennifer Hillier

Genre: Suspense, Canadian

Type: eBook

Source: NetGalley

Publisher: Minotaur Books (St Martin's Press)

First Published: April 21, 2020

Opening Lines: Pike Place Market is a tourist trap on a regular day. Combine 
it with last-minute holiday shopping and an extremely mild, sunny 
weekend - almost unheard of in December - and you were in 
the busiest nine acres of a Saturday afternoon in Seattle.

Book Description from GoodReads: From the author of Jar of Hearts, a mother driven to the edge by the disappearance of her son learns her husband is having an affair with the woman who might have kidnapped him.

Four hundred and eighty seconds. That’s how long it took for someone to steal Marin Machado's four-year-old son.

Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They're admired in their community and are a loving family. Up until the day Sebastian is taken.

A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. The only thing keeping her going is the unlikely chance that one day Sebastian reappears. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding him, she discovers that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman.

Kenzie Li is an artist and grad student—Instagram famous—and up to her eyeballs in debt. She knows Derek is married. She also knows he's rich, and dating him comes with perks: help with bills, trips away, expensive gifts. He isn't her first rich boyfriend, but she finds herself hoping he'll be the last. She's falling for him—and that was never part of the plan.

Discovery of the affair sparks Marin back to life. She's lost her son; she's not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. But as she sets a plan in motion, another revelation surfaces. Derek's lover might know what happened to their son. And so might Derek.