The Secrets She Keeps

True to its title, this riveting novel of suspense is full of people keeping secrets.
Two women. Two points of view.
Meghan seems to have it all: 2 beautiful children, a handsome and successful husband, a lovely home in London, a close circle of friends, and now a third pregnancy.
Agatha is on the other end of the spectrum and is desperate to build a life as "perfect" as Meghan's. Agatha works in Meghan's local supermarket and the two women start to bond as their due dates are not far apart.
Loved the entire book, but Agatha's point of view, in particular, was outstanding. Eerie and tense, this was such a twisted tale, a true page turner! I really enjoyed the way Robotham gradually unfolded the plot and revealed more of his characters' show more layers. The two alternating perspectives worked exceptionally well, and I found I cared about both characters.
This is a standalone and was my first book by Michael Robotham. I'm glad I have his Joseph O'Loughlin series lined up on my Kindle to read soon. Fantastic writing! Pretty sure this will make my favorites shelf for this year. show less

I read this is being compared to In a Dark, Dark Wood and Girl on the Train so of course I was quite eager to jump into this thrilling novel; I was not disappointed and felt the comparisons eerily accurate.

Pages will fly by faster than you expect as you develop this need to not stop until you find out all the answers. Problems arise around every twist and turn with no apparent way for Robotham to possibly answer everything within the one book but somehow he does. Unlike most suspense books I’ve read where there inevitably comes that one major moment where everything explodes, this one was more like gently crashing waves slowly releasing the answers a bit at the time.

You will be bombarded with plenty of secrets and lies which should show more come as no great shock considering the title but there is also a great deal of astute psychological examination of people’s motivations, actions and emotions. Robotham does a fantastic job in his character development as well as his view on human psychology particularly its darker side.

I have to say, for a man, he captured the female voice, psyche and personality scarily well in this book as he allowed his 2 main female characters to narrate this story. It’s not often I am unable to find fault in a male author who decides to dive deep into the female mind but Robotham earned my respect for his deft handling of his characters even more so since the women were pregnant. He managed to avoid the pitfalls of stereotypes men often paint pregnant women into which made his storyline all that much better. show less

Agatha and Meghan, two women with very different lives, have one thing in common: they’re both pregnant with due dates close to each other. To Agatha, Meghan’s life seems perfect. Meghan already has two beautiful children, as well as a handsome and successful husband, while Agatha must get by on a grocery store clerk’s salary and a detached boyfriend. But, as so often’s the case, not everything is as it seems.

THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS is an absorbing psychological thriller, and the first book I’ve read by Michael Robotham. The story alternates between Agatha and Meghan’s points of view, and I was impressed with how well-developed their characters were, and how quickly I was wrapped up in their web of secrets and lies.

This book show more isn’t as twisty and fast paced as most thrillers. It’s more a suspense novel that makes you think about the characters, their actions, and what has brought them to this point in life. Victim or villain – who should we sympathize with?

Listening to this book on audio was an enjoyable experience. Lucy Price-Lewis gave distinct voices to Agatha, Meghan, and the cast of supporting characters.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. show less

The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham is a 2017 Scribner publication.

Whew! Now that was intense!!

Agatha, a store clerk, and Meghan, a stay at home mom/blogger with a seemingly idyllic life, two women who are vastly different in class and style, find a common ground when their lives casually intersect.

Meghan meets Agatha in the market she shops in, striking up a conversation over their pregnancies. However, what you see on the surface of their lives is not always the same as what lies beneath- and that’s putting it mildly!!

When this book first started getting a little buzz, I knew I wanted to check it out for myself. I also saw that it was compared to Ruth Ware’s novel and to…. Yep- one of “The Girl” books. So, I tried show more to tamp down on my enthusiasm just a bit, worried I would be disappointed.

Well, I wasn’t at all disappointed. This is a well constructed thriller, that not only kept the suspense level at a maximum peak, but was an intelligent, clever, and distinct novel. I admit, it did make me squirm a little at times, though. I had a terrible feeling of foreboding right off, and as I went deeper into the story, that feeling of dread became almost unbearable.

The characters are spectacularly flawed, morally questionable on several levels, and so you may or may not feel sympathy towards them, but there are innocent victims at stake, so I was very concerned for the welfare of some of these people.

"We need the darkness to appreciate the light, and the bumps along the road to stop us from falling asleep at the wheel.”

While there is the clear sense of danger coming, there are multi-layers of suspense. Both Meghan and Agatha have backed themselves into a corner which adds another rich layer of stress to the story, giving it an unrelentingly tense atmosphere!

The final showdown is absolutely breathtaking, and the ending is utterly chilling!

This book definitely lived up to the hype!! The writing is superb, with well drawn characters, and perfect pacing.

If you enjoy domestic and psychological thrillers, you do not want to miss this one!!

4.5 stars
128 likes show less

Good vacation read -- keeps moving and can be consuming. Also creepy! It starts with a scholarly epigraph, that makes the best sense closer to the end of the book, though the story itself is less high-brow. The plot is full of secrets: Agatha Fyfle has secrets about her childhood and upbringing, her impending pregnancy, the place she visits in the woods, her relationship with Hayden Cole, her obsession with Meg Shaughnessy, and her plans for the future. Meg & Jack appear to have the perfect family & relationship, but there are secrets there too -- she is a blogger and stay-at home mum to Lucy and Lachlan and is pregnant with #3. Jack is a sportscaster local celebrity and they live in the right London suburb where Agatha happens to work show more in a grocery. Their paths intersect in many other ways, mostly orchestrated by Agatha as both of them near their respective due dates. The author parcels out info just enough to keep things a soap opera/guessing game/thriller and manages to make you root for both women at the same time. The final 2 pages are perplexing, but the ending is satisfying overall. show less

The thing with a Michael Robotham thriller is that even when he's working in territory that's been extensively explored, there's always something extra about his interpretations. So it is with THE SECRET SHE KEEPS, where again there's complexity and nuance in the portrayal of both "good" and "bad".

The narrative in THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS switches between two main female characters. Both are eight weeks pregnant, both have secrets they are keeping to themselves, yet they are very different people. Agatha is struggling on her own, poor and clearly underprivileged she's working in a local supermarket, doing it tough, envious of Meghan's seemingly perfect life. Meghan's the one with the nice house, two children, the successful husband. show more Agatha's watching Meghan, very closely, envy quickly slipping into something more creepy, worrying, especially as Meghan's utterly unaware of the interest, battling with her own life, that might seem perfect to Agatha, but is riven with problems of its own.

Robotham choreograph's an elaborate dance between these two characters, delicately revealing more and more details about their lives, intertwining them together closer and closer - building the tension gently, slowly, languidly in the beginning, until suddenly the reader will find themselves a page turning witness to a slow moving car crash that is all the more disturbing because of the carefully crafted inevitability of many of the plot lines.

It's a mark of Robotham's skill that he's inserted THE SECRET SHE KEEPS into a crowded domestic noir scene, littered with unreliable narrators, dysfunctional families and tension because of poor judgements, and created an extremely readable, quite chilling, page turning entrant.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/secrets-she-keeps-michael-robotham-1 show less

Michael Robotham is as good as it gets when it comes to the psychological thriller and The Secrets She Keeps is latest example of a chilling thriller. Here we meet pregnant Agatha, who works part-time as a stocker at a little grocery store in London. She envies Meghan, the pretty, well-off mother of two with a handsome husband, a nice house, and a mommy blog. Agatha learns that Meghan is pregnant and due at about the same time as she is when a chance encounter in the store leads to an unlikely friendship.

As with most Robotham novels, surface appearances hide deeper secrets and truths. Like peeling an onion, layer after layer is exposed with new details revealed each time. Is Meghan’s life as perfect as it seems? Is cheerful Agatha as show more good as she appears? What does it mean to have a perfect life and a perfect family? And what would you be willing to do to get and keep it?

Robotham skillfully pulls you in deeper and deeper, revealing darker truths and stakes that keep escalating until they have so much momentum it’s unclear if they can be stopped. The pages fly by as you move towards a conclusion that is impossible to predict. The uncertainty of outcomes lends tension to an already high stakes situation.

The audiobook is read by Lucy Price-Lewis who does a great job. Her character voices reflect both the difference in social status of the two principle characters as well as their different and changing states of mind. She adds urgency to the words on the page as situations become both more tense and more tragic. One of Michael Robotham’s greatest skills is in investing your emotions in the characters and making it absolutely gut-wrenching as you see tragedy approaching. Lucy Price-Lewis captures this dimension and perfectly complements the story.

This is a great story and an author who never fails to entertain. Highly recommended.

I was fortunate to receive a copy of the audiobook from the publisher. show less