Suspenseful psycho thriller with a well-drawn protagonist but a slightly jumbled plot path.
Little Secrets is a stand-alone domestic psychological thriller and in a strange mash-up of a plot starts out with a kidnapped child storyline before turning its focus firmly on spousal infidelity. Suspenseful, darkly twisted and occasionally somewhat far-fetched, Jennifer Hillier delivers a hugely sympathetic protagonist and at least one thoroughly unlikeable character to keep reader absorbed.
Sixteen months on from having her four year old son, Sebastian, abducted at a busy Seattle market just days before Christmas, Marin Machado is barely functioning. Plagued with guilt and having attempted suicide in the wake of the FBI’s decision to shelve their active investigation she is emotionally distanced from Derek, her wealthy CEO husband of nearly twenty years and in a very dark place. After taking a step back from running her exclusive hair salons Marin has, unbeknownst to her husband, hired a savvy private investigator to continue the hunt for their son. But in looking into the people that surround the glamorous couple, ex-cop turned P.I., Vanessa Castro, discovers that Derek is six months into an affair with twenty-four-year-old graduate student McKenzie (“Kenzie”) Li.
The discovery is like an adrenaline shot for Marin and in a frenzied rage she becomes increasingly reckless. Supported by her best friend and one time boyfriend, Sal Palermo, and his shady contacts, Marin decides to do anything to keep what remains of her family together and that means saying goodbye to Kenzie. From here on the narrative is split between Marin and Kenzie and the more Marin learns about Kenzie, the more fired up she becomes. Sadly Kenzie has no redeeming features and is a typical social media obsessed millennial who has a habit of hooking her claws into wealthy married men and coming away with severance pay.
Whilst Kenzie is given far less of the narrative than Marin she doesn’t add much to the story and there is little sign of a conscience making her hard to care about. I did find this middle section a little sluggish, especially given the loss of focus on Sebastian. Marin’s cocktail of emotions are well conveyed and her distress feels raw and for this reason I found her a believably flawed and sympathetic protagonist to invest in, even in her rasher moments. Although I wasn’t convinced that Marin’s discovery of her husband’s affair would reenergise her and become her focus given she has a missing child it is necessary to accept this to fully invest in the novel. However there is method in Hillier’s sidestep because the plot does eventually comes full circle and get back to its original territory. Whilst it certainly doesn’t seem logical that a mother would behave like this it can just about be justified by grief-stricken Marin’s out of character behaviour following Sebastian’s disappearance.
In a spiral of events that all stem from Marin’s decision to oust her younger rival it becomes clear that Derek might know more about Sebastian’s fate than he is letting on.. And if she can’t trust her husband, who can Marin trust? The supporting cast of characters is small and doesn’t make spotting the villain of the piece too difficult which disappoints but the frenetic denouement is ample reward in a domestic thriller than proves difficult not to be sucked into.
Sixteen months on from having her four year old son, Sebastian, abducted at a busy Seattle market just days before Christmas, Marin Machado is barely functioning. Plagued with guilt and having attempted suicide in the wake of the FBI’s decision to shelve their active investigation she is emotionally distanced from Derek, her wealthy CEO husband of nearly twenty years and in a very dark place. After taking a step back from running her exclusive hair salons Marin has, unbeknownst to her husband, hired a savvy private investigator to continue the hunt for their son. But in looking into the people that surround the glamorous couple, ex-cop turned P.I., Vanessa Castro, discovers that Derek is six months into an affair with twenty-four-year-old graduate student McKenzie (“Kenzie”) Li.
The discovery is like an adrenaline shot for Marin and in a frenzied rage she becomes increasingly reckless. Supported by her best friend and one time boyfriend, Sal Palermo, and his shady contacts, Marin decides to do anything to keep what remains of her family together and that means saying goodbye to Kenzie. From here on the narrative is split between Marin and Kenzie and the more Marin learns about Kenzie, the more fired up she becomes. Sadly Kenzie has no redeeming features and is a typical social media obsessed millennial who has a habit of hooking her claws into wealthy married men and coming away with severance pay.
Whilst Kenzie is given far less of the narrative than Marin she doesn’t add much to the story and there is little sign of a conscience making her hard to care about. I did find this middle section a little sluggish, especially given the loss of focus on Sebastian. Marin’s cocktail of emotions are well conveyed and her distress feels raw and for this reason I found her a believably flawed and sympathetic protagonist to invest in, even in her rasher moments. Although I wasn’t convinced that Marin’s discovery of her husband’s affair would reenergise her and become her focus given she has a missing child it is necessary to accept this to fully invest in the novel. However there is method in Hillier’s sidestep because the plot does eventually comes full circle and get back to its original territory. Whilst it certainly doesn’t seem logical that a mother would behave like this it can just about be justified by grief-stricken Marin’s out of character behaviour following Sebastian’s disappearance.
In a spiral of events that all stem from Marin’s decision to oust her younger rival it becomes clear that Derek might know more about Sebastian’s fate than he is letting on.. And if she can’t trust her husband, who can Marin trust? The supporting cast of characters is small and doesn’t make spotting the villain of the piece too difficult which disappoints but the frenetic denouement is ample reward in a domestic thriller than proves difficult not to be sucked into.