Alex Marwood

I would never have thought that I would have enjoyed a book so much with so many intensely selfish and obnoxious characters. It's testament to Alex Marwood's writing that the vileness of the group of friends is the main ingredient for such a dark mouthwatering recipe for disaster that is The Darkest Secret.

Sean Jackson changes wives almost as often as he changes his address. He marries them, has a couple of daughters then moves on to the next woman who catches his eye. When Sean dies show more suddenly in a compromising position, most befitting his character, we are taken back to 2004. It is Sean's 50th birthday weekend and his friends have gathered with their families for the celebration. During the drinking and debauchery, friendships are tested, relationships are ended and Coco, one of Sean's twin daughters, goes missing.

As the same friends gather for Sean's funeral 12 years later, the strain of keeping secret what really happened to Coco starts to show. With alcohol flowing and reporters hanging round, to what lengths will the friends go to keep the secret buried? Do they all really know what happened to Coco, or do they only know half of the story?

The Darkest Secret is a deliciously dark page turner; there are so many lies and cover-ups that I wasn't even sure what to believe at one point. I would never have guessed what really happened and completely missed the psychopath in the room. I would definitely be checking out Alex Marwood's previous novels and will certainly be looking out for more from such a talented author.

I received this e-book from the publisher, Little, Brown Book Group, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

The action of The Wicked Girls starts in the seaside town of Whitmouth where Amber Gordon works as the supervisor of the third shift cleaning crew at Funnland, a beachfront amusement park. Amber is trying to be the kind of supportive supervisor people like, helping them out when she can and turning a blind eye to their minor infractions. Her life is pretty no frills, but her luck; finding a home with a good boyfriend, her two sweet dogs, and steady work; never ceases to surprise her. That show more is, until the night when she reports to her normal cleaning duties at Innfinityland, the hall of mirrors, and discovers the body of a strangled young girl in its passages. All the sudden, her criminal past, carefully buried and obscured by a new name and a quiet life, comes perilously close to the surface.

As the killings continue, and the Seaside Strangler begins to make a name for himself, the press descends upon the lower-end holiday town. With it comes Kirsty Lindsay, mother of two, hack journalist, and the incognito other half of a "criminal" duo. Kirsty and Amber were never meant to see each other again, but the coincidence of the Whitmouth crimes drags them into each other's orbit for the first time since the fateful day when their childhoods came to an abrupt end. As the saga of the Seaside Strangler continues, the back story of the "Wicked Girls" also slowly unspools.

I actually quite enjoyed The Wicked Girls, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. For starters, it was set on the English seaside, which for some reason, despite having read the spoilery jacket copy and whatever the publicist sent me when pitching the book to me for review, I failed to realize. As for me, the British slang and atmosphere set this book a little apart for me and made me like it more. Second, I was expecting more of a nailbiter when it came to identifying the Seaside Strangler. However, for anybody who has ever caught an episode of a show like Criminal Minds in their lives, spotting the Strangler was no difficult task, and I think I'd managed it before the book was half over. Rather than giving a lot of attention to the immediate crimes at hand, the book uses them to embrace its more literary side and delve into the psyches of the now adult perpetrators of a childhood crime.

As a character study, The Wicked Girls soars. It asks difficult questions about what constitutes a murder, whether a killer can ever outrun the effects of their crime, and how well another person and their motives can ever truly be known. More suspenseful than the Strangler mystery by far is the collection of flashbacks that recalls the details of the first and last day the Wicked Girls spent together and the crime, if you can call it that, that derails their futures. Marwood does a stellar job with her two main characters. They are are never quite positioned as wholly loveable women, but Marwood easily draws your sympathy toward them as she lays out the paths that each took to live a good life in the wake of crime and punishment, whether it was by being a devoted wife and mother or by always offering a helping hand to a friend or a co-worker in need. When it becomes clear that what's past is never truly past, Marwood evokes a sad situation and asks her readers to consider what really makes a person wicked and whether someone with blood on their hands can ever find redemption. show less

All The Twists & Turns of a Thriller at the Funfair.

Wow what a debut crime psychological thriller we have here, Alex Marwood using all her experience of being a journalist comes through who has reported on stories where the truth is stranger than fiction. Somehow Marwood has managed to put that feeling where you do not know what to believe from the beginning as you are met with two feral kids that have just been sentenced to life for murder and the braying crowd outside wanting instant show more ‘justice’.

Annabel and Jade were sentenced to life as children cut from their families they are given new identities and released back in to society on a life licence which means any breach of their parole conditions they go straight back to prison. After 25 years Kirsty Lindsay has rebuilt her new life married with children and working as a freelance journalist is reporting on a series of murders in the sea side town of Whitmore in Kent. She comes across Amber Gordon a cleaner at the funfair on the pier at Whitmore. It is the first time both have met each other since they were stood in the dock when their sentence was being handed down and both are now scared.

As the book throws us many curve balls as to who we think may be the killer or killers we literally have to see who it is, and as for the why........ One thing is made very clear to protect themselves and their families they need to work together to protect their dark secret. They are well aware how feral people can become when they hear there is a child killer in their midst and how self-righteous they become and judgemental even when sentences have been served.

You can feel the psychological terror that is taking place for Kirsty and Amber will they be able to keep their secret and will these murders unmask them both. It is the fear of that while holding together their lives as the world falls to pieces around them. Is it possible to hold everything together or do you revert to the type of person the feral society expects you to be egged on by the tabloid press or can you move on.

This book is a brilliant debut thriller with so many twists and turns you really cannot predict how the story will end for both the central characters. In some ways you feel for both Kirsty and Amber as the underlying knowledge society will never really allow them to move on to change their lives if their secret comes out. You can feel their fear and the towns fear as people are being killed.

This really is an exciting and exhilarating read that tests the bounds of what you believe and what you want to believe. I cannot recommend this book highly enough and see what sort of person you are, can people really change? show less

From Amazon:

Alex Marwood’s back with a brilliant, tightly paced thriller that will keep you up at night and make you ask yourself: just how well do you know your neighbors? Everyone who lives at 23 Beulah Grove has a secret. If they didn't, they wouldn't be renting rooms in a dodgy old building for cash—no credit check, no lease. It’s the kind of place you end up when you you've run out of other options. The six residents mostly keep to themselves, but one unbearably hot summer night, show more a terrible accident pushes them into an uneasy alliance. What they don’t know is that one of them is a killer. He’s already chosen his next victim, and he’ll do anything to protect his secret.

My Thoughts:

From the very beginning Alex Marwood hooks you. Cher, teenage runaway, is interviewed at the police station, giving her statement about a recent gruesome discovery – then we are thrown back in time to start meeting the people involved…the residents of No 23. Knowing that doom is approaching for at least one, you just want to shout. “Stop!"...“Don’t do that”. “RUN!" …and yet you are never entirely sure whether you are directing this at the right people... very clever.

Putting that side of it away for a moment – the more frightening part if you like – you can also look at this story as a soundbite from life. Cher, teenager, thief, but also someone you would want on your side. Collette, hiding from danger not realising that she faces far worse in her chosen sanctuary, Vesta, pensioner, is mother and confidante to all. Then you have a handome asylum seeker Hossein, the lonely Thomas and the musically minded Gerard, all watched over by the repugnant landlord Preece. Different views, different lives, all tied together by their mutual living space, you could easily read this as a cautionary tale of the ups and downs of life…and somewhere in that marvelous mix a killer lurks…hiding in plain sight. From start to finish this is a terrific page turner, a look at the dark heart that lurks in us all and a compelling, often emotional, always refreshing tale of humanity. show less