One Little Secret
A Novel
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4.0 • 16 Ratings
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
USA Today Bestseller
One of Bustle’s “New Books Set At the Beach To Read When You Can’t Be There Yourself”
One of Bustle’s “12 Books Like Knives Out For Fans Of Family Sagas, Murder, & Knitwear”
One of CrimeReads’ “Most Anticipated Crime Books of Summer”
Part locked-room mystery, part domestic thriller, this gossipy, scandal-ridden whodunit “will keep you up all night” (Good Morning America) as a Hamptons getaway among friends turns tense—then deadly
Everyone has a secret. For some, it’s worth dying to protect. For others, it’s worth killing.
The glass beach house was supposed to be the getaway that Susan needed. Eager to help her transplanted family set down roots in their new town—and desperate for some kid-free conversation—she invites her new neighbors to join in on a week-long sublet with her and her workaholic husband.
Over the course of the first evening, liquor loosens inhibitions and lips. The three couples begin picking up on the others’ marital tensions and work frustrations, as well as revealing their own. But someone says too much. And the next morning one of the women is discovered dead on the private beach.
Town detective Gabby Watkins must figure out who permanently silenced the deceased. As she investigates, she learns that everyone in the glass house was hiding something that could tie them to the murder, and that the biggest secrets of all are often in plain sight for anyone willing to look.
A taut, locked room mystery with an unforgettable cast of characters, One Little Secret promises to keep readers' eyes glued to the pages and debating the blinders that we all put on in the service of politeness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the outset of this solidly plotted novel from Holahan (The Widower's Wife), three racially diverse, upper-middle-class couples converge on a Hamptons beach house they are renting. Ben Hansen and Rachel Klein, Jenny and Louis Murray, Susan and Nadal Ahmadi two lawyers, a doctor, a TV sports commentator who was once an orthopedist, and two stay-at-home parents are neighbors whose backyards back home touch but who barely know each other. The weekend starts well with drinks and tasty food, but ends with the murder of one of the wives. Gabby Watkins, the sole black detective on the local police force, investigates. The action remains strong as it touches on infidelity, betrayal, abuse, bad business dealings, and underhanded lawsuits. But most of the characters are unfocused until halfway through the story. Only Gabby is consistently well developed as she deals with racism and sexism in the department and in town. Still, Holahan does a fine job portraying fraying marriages and artificial friendships.
