Book Review: The Secrets She Keeps ( Suspense/ Thriller)

The Secrets She Keeps

by 

Michael Robotham

Publisher: Hachette Australia 
Publication Date: 11th July 2017
Pages: 464
Format read: eBook
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley

 

Everyone has an idea of what their perfect life is. For Agatha, it's Meghan Shaughnessy's.

These two women from vastly different backgrounds have one thing in common - a dangerous secret that could destroy everything they hold dear.

Both will risk everything to hide the truth, but their worlds are about to collide in a shocking act that cannot be undone.

 

Agatha works at a supermarket and her boyfriend is away in the Navy. She is estranged from her mother with seemingly no support.

Agatha has always dreamed of having a loving husband, a beautiful home and children to fill it. At her job in the local supermarket Agatha watches Meghan go about her daily life; picking the children up from school, going to the hairdressers and having coffee with friends. Her dream life is exactly what Meghan has. Does Meghan appreciate everything she has, everything that Agatha has dreamed of?

Agatha tries to emulate Meghan’s life, going to the same hairdresser, reading Meghan’s mummy blog and joining her yoga class. When she realises Meghan is pregnant she is happy that they now have something in common and a friendship soon strikes up during Meghan’s visits to the supermarket.

Written in the alternating voices of Meghan and Agatha giving the reader   a real look inside their lives and minds and it soon becomes apparent that both women have secrets lying just under the surface.

My only problem with the story was that the beginning was very slow and the plot predictable. However I still enjoyed the story and couldn’t put the book down. It was an easy read, more women's fiction than suspense thriller. The characters of Agatha and Meghan were well drawn and the storyline realistic.

In the last quarter of the book the plot heats up and the adrenaline starts to flow, turning The Secrets She Keeps into the psychological thriller I was expecting.

 My Rating   3.5 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐½

*this review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge

 

Photo credit: Goodreads

Before becoming a novelist, Michael Robotham was an investigative journalist working across America, Australia and Britain. As a journalist and writer he has investigated notorious cases such as the serial killer couple Fred and Rosemary West. He has worked with clinical and forensic psychologists as they helped police investigate complex, psychologically driven crimes.
Michael's 2004 debut thriller, The Suspect, sold more than 1 million copies around the world. It is the first of eight novels featuring clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin, who faces his own increasing battle with a potentially debilitating disease. Michael has also written four standalone thrillers. In 2015 he won the UK's prestigious Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award with his standalone thriller Life or Death.
He lives in Sydney.