The Secrets She Keeps: A Novel

very disappointing from a novelist i have greatly enjoyed in the past. characters were dull , didn't care about them and the theme had elements of Girl on a Train in some of the characters.
I persevered just to finish it but worst book i have read this year

This novel kept me engaged from beginning to end. The writer did an excellent job of revealing the two main characters' thoughts and depth. Well written and well paced. The final paragraph was a bit of a mystery; one of those "up to the reader" endings, which I find annoying at times. However, easy to overlook one paragraph in a riveting story.

Was it clever, was it well written, what was wrong? I think the topic of a wounded infertile woman was abhorrent to me, and her naivety once she had the baby, her inability to grasp the solution Hayden offered her was all frustrating. I realise through Cyrus we saw her as a victim, but I struggled.

As Agatha worked at the local supermarket, disliking her boss, wishing she was elsewhere – she admired Meghan Shaughnessy’s life. Meghan was pregnant and the mother’s group get together in the café opposite showed Meg laughing and talking with her friends. Agatha knew Meg had two other children - Lucy and Lachlan – and she was envious of the happiness and lifestyle the family had. Their lives were perfect – Agatha wished hers could be the same.

Meg’s husband Jack was a high-flyer in the job he was in – his work kept him busy and often he was stressed. But Meg and Jack loved each other, even though they didn’t talk as often as they used to. They were busy – right? But Meg held a secret deep inside; one she didn’t want anyone to know – especially Jack.

Agatha’s pregnancy was progressing in a similar time frame to Meg’s, so when they struck up a conversation at the yoga class they both attended it was a natural progression to head for coffee. Meg liked Agatha’s company – Agatha already knew she liked Meg. It was a lovely friendship, swapping pregnancy and life stories. What could possibly happen to upset the happy progression of pregnancy to new baby? Would secrets bring everything undone?

The Secrets She Keeps is another brilliant psychological thriller by the master of the genre, Aussie author Michael Robotham. A gradual build-up of tension to the gripping, heart-stopping and explosive conclusion, The Secrets She Keeps satisfied everything for me as I turned the last page. Highly recommended.

An avid Michael Robotham fan since his first book to his latest— and each one in between! The talented Australian crime fiction author returns following Close Your Eyes (Joseph O'Loughlin), landing on my Top Books of 2016, as well as Life or Death on my Top 10 Books of 2015 with his twelveth novel—yet another supercharged smashing hit THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS!

5 stars +++ Let me say, there are some juicy evil secrets here . . . KILLER! Top Books of 2017. Set aside the time (unputdownable). Would make a fabulous movie! A story that will change the way you view other people’s lives. Fitting for today's world of social media.

Two women. Two lives. Two worlds. Two pregnancies. Two sets of very different secrets. The dangers of envy and lies.

Character-driven, skillfully-plotted —Robotham pulls you into the dark secret world of two different women in this riveting domestic suspense thriller.

Two pregnant women. Two women from different walks of life. How will their worlds connect? The search for happiness. Survival. Managing expectations. Wishing for something someone else has.

Agatha watches Meghan from the window of the suburban London grocery store where she works part-time stocking shelves. She is pregnant. Her baby’s father is away. She leads a sad life. What an imagination! She desires a perfect life. She wants to be a perfect mother and wife. She will have this world.

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

Meghan is chic, elegant, dazzling. Meghan has it all. Perfect children (Lucy and Lachlan), a handsome husband (sports reporter), Jack; stylish, nice friends, beautiful, plus she writes a mommy blog. She is pregnant. Meghan Shaughnessy is a former journalist but now a super-mom with tons of followers.

One follower is obsessed and carries it further.

Agatha is delighted to discover their two pregnancy dates are within the same month. She must figure out a way to get to know this woman. To get close to her. What is Agatha's agenda? She is the more mysterious one. Agatha is not so pretty. People do not notice shelf-stockers. She imagines herself friends with Meg. She soon learns Meg’s habits by the things she buys and shops for in the store. She wants to have a life like Meg. She waits for her man, Hayden to return from the Navy. He does not know she is pregnant.

Despite her dead-end job and the desperate ordinary life, Agatha has her imagination and her dreams. However, is Meg’s life as glamorous as Agatha thinks?

Meg’s marriage is not so perfect. The happy go lucky easy-going Jack has turned into a brittle man whose emotions seem to be wrapped tightly in barbed wire that she cannot hope to unloop them.

Agatha watches Meg, Jack and the children for hours. She stalks. She has been inside their home. The house next to the train track. She may see more than she wanted to. (loved this part with Jack/Realtor/Agatha).

Megan had an affair with Simon. Secrets to take to the grave.

What is Agatha hiding? What does her Jehovah Witness childhood have to do with the present? The horrors and monsters. She is attracted to people. When it comes to her past, people get some of the truth, some of the time.

Told in alternating voices, Agatha has a haunting past she hides. Meghan’s perfect life begins to unravel. What unfolds is heart-pounding chilling suspense! They may have more in common than they know.

A top-notch thriller and a compulsive read. Dark, twisted, and emotionally charged! Am always amazed at how a man writes such strong women characters. He gets inside their heads—flawed characters, full of emotion, sprinkled with wit, humor, book titles, movies and lots of heart and intensity.

The author mentions in the acknowledgments: . . . “The Secrets She Keeps, a novel whose structure, substance, and twin voices are the most ambitious I’ve ever tackled.”

Congrats! Just when I think the next book cannot possibly be better than the previous, the author manages to create another intelligent award-winning psychological masterpiece! Not only is Robotham one of the most talented writers, he could be a standup comedian. Hilarious one-liners.

I love the Joe O’Loughlin series; however, the author’s stand-alone's are to be savored as well. One of the top crime thriller international authors today. As always, glued to the pages. (Your US fans adore you!) Looks like we will get to see more of Joe O’Loughlin, with The Other Wife, coming July 2018 (can’t wait). A pre-order for sure!

Also purchased the audiobook (currently listening). Love narrator, Lucy Price-Lewis delivering a riveting performance. For fans of Karin Slaughter, Paula Hawkins, Paul Cleave, and Liane Moriarty. Highly Recommend.

A special thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for an early reading copy.

JDCMustReadBooks

Wow, this was one emotional read! The author managed to get right under my skin, pressed all the right buttons and literally swept me away with his tight plotting.
To look at her, Meghan has it all. A loving, handsome and successful husband, two perfect children, a wonderful home, great social circle and a popular blog. Agatha on the other hand works a low paid job, has an absent boyfriend, estranged from her mother, and lives in relative squalor. What does connect them however is that both are pregnant, due about the same time. When Meghan pops into her shop for a few bits, Agatha plucks up the courage to talk to her for the first time. To make the connection with Meghan who she has been watching for a while. Little does Meghan realise that this "chance" encounter will be the catalyst for some rather harrowing times to come. It will bring on events that will turn her life completely upside down and inside out.
Oh my word. Once I started reading this book, I had to put aside everything in order to finish it. It had me totally and completely hooked and in its power throughout. The more I read, the more I needed to find out how it would all end. And when I turned the final page, I was completely emotionally spent.
The more I got to know Agatha, the more my feelings were turned around. From the glimpses into her childhood, what she had to endure, what made her the person she has become, I found myself completely sympathising with her. Well, up to a point. As her present truth started to come out, as I realised what she was doing, my emotions went into overdrive. Similarly with Meghan. As her perfect-on-the-outside, notsomuch-on-the inside life was explained, she also had me feeling for her and at the same time unsympathetic towards her. It's that old adage that however well you think you know someone, what goes on behind closed doors is often a completely different story. Her husband Jack is not the perfect husband that he seems to be. Hayden, Agatha's on/off Naval boyfriend is also quite a surprise in the way he acts throughout and I found him to be a very credible character.
What really impressed me the most was what Agatha did and how she did it. Oh my, I can't/won't go into any detail here due to spoilers but wow! She really had it all planned out and I can't help but applaud her for that. You learn quite early on what the score is but it is the aftermath and the slow, psychological fallout and subsequent explanation that really is the hook in this book. Suspense builds slowly but before long it becomes quite claustrophobic in nature and it ends up being akin to a car crash. You don't want to look but you are powerless to stop yourself.
All in all, an extremely well plotted, well executed book containing very complex but very credible characters that left me completely satisfied and totally spent at the end.

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Synopsis: Two pregnant women are expecting about the same time. One woman works in a grocery store and is fascinated by the other woman's seemingly perfect life. After a brief encounter, both of their lives are changed.

Two woman, Agatha and Meghan, are expecting babies... and both women are keeping secrets. Using alternating chapters, the story is told from both women's point of view. The characters are well developed, with a bit of a slow beginning to develop them.

Though it started slow, it was building up to an gripping story. Once the story gets going, it moves along quickly. The book is divided into two parts, the before and the after.

An exciting thriller. Some good twists, but fairly predictable.

This book is extremely addicting. I never wanted to put it down! The subject matter is actually appalling at times, and I was getting emotional toward the end. It's fantastically written and will keep you guessing until the very last page.

Two pregnant women, due around the same time. Other than that uniting them, they couldn't be more different. Meghan stays home with her two lovely children, writes a mommy blog, and has a handsome and successful husband. Agatha currently has no children, works at a supermarket, lives in a crappy apartment, and her boyfriend won't return her calls. Agatha admires Meghan from afar, admiring her life. It seems like it must be perfect. She envies it. Why can't she have that?

As we get to know both Agatha and Meghan, we learn their secrets. We learn the realities of their life, the hurt and guilt they both carry for different reasons. I'm being very careful not to reveal much, because this book is best enjoyed going in fairly blind. There's a reason this book is rated so high on Good Reads. Give it a shot and prepare for an emotional roller coaster!

I received an ARC of this book from Net Galley and Scribner, thank you! My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Told alternately from the viewpoint of Meg and Agatha, this brilliant thriller had me gripped tightly in its clutches from the very first chapter. Meg is one of those women, who on the surface, seems to have an utterly perfect life. She’s married to a handsome man named Jack and has two lovely children and a third on the way. Agatha is also pregnant, but her life isn’t quite as charmed as Meg’s. As the details of their lives and the secrets they’re both keeping are slowly and methodically revealed, it’s very clear that danger is lurking and dark secrets and betrayals are underfoot.

This book is aptly titled as the secrets these women are keeping are powerful and shocking. It was a constant barrage of revelations and gasp worthy moments and the author masterfully and carefully shared them, at just the right time. It’s divided into two parts and the first half really sets the stage for what’s ahead. There is a lot of character development and buildup, then when part two begins, things get super tense. You couldn’t have pried my Kindle from my hands for all the money in the world, I was that gripped.

I’m keeping this on the shorter side because the plot is so intricate and beautifully crafted that me speaking to it anymore wouldn’t do it any justice. If you are a fan of this genre this a definite must read. It was a highly addictive, perfectly paced, compelling read that I absolutely loved! And now I’ll be busy buying all the books in Robotham’s back catalogue…

I am most familiar with Australian author Michael Robotham’s series of novels featuring protagonist Joe O’Loughlin, and I have recommended him to many people without hesitation. When I received a copy of his latest, The Secrets She Keeps, from Scribner and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review, I had no idea what the premise was, whether it was an O’Loughlin book, or something new and different. And it WAS different – for sure. This is the story of two women who are apparently pregnant at the same time. One of them, Agatha, works at a supermarket, isn’t married, and spends a lot of time and energy dreaming of the life she doesn’t have (especially the roles of wife and mother). She watches (and seriously at first her stalking really creeped me out) Meghan, a beautiful mother of two seemingly perfect children, wife to a good-looking television personality, whose pregnancy seems about as far along as Agatha’s own.

We learn that although everything LOOKS perfect. Meghan is restless in her marriage: “…sometimes I rake my memory to find moments that make me truly happy.” Told in the alternating points of view of these two women, a recurring theme of honesty and trust is voiced by Meghan early on: “Anyone who says that honesty is the best policy is living in la-la land. Either that or they have never been married or had children. Parents lie to their kids all the time—about sex, drugs, death, and a hundred other things. We lie to those we love to protect their feelings. We lie because that’s what love means, whereas unfettered honesty is cruel and the height of self-indulgence.”

Agatha is no less unsettled: “How can she ever understand my life? What it’s like to live in a cramped, claustrophobic tunnel that gets smaller and darker as each year passes.” Much of her viewpoint is revealed when she says to Meghan “I am an outlier. I am the incredible disappearing woman. I am childless. Less of a person. Not in the club. You take those things for granted.”

Agatha wants the life she thinks Meghan has. Meghan sees Agatha as a familiar face from her shopping trips and yoga class, but little does Meghan know that the ho-hum exchange she has with a store employee during her hurried afternoon shopping trip is about to change the course of her not-so-perfect life!

It’s quite the page-turner, as the characters of the women and their families are revealed in alternating chapters. I was somewhat skeptical about Mr. Robotham’s ability to write from the perspective of two different pregnant women, but he did it with his usual outstanding plot development and attention to details of the characters’ personalities. Never having been pregnant myself, lots of the feelings about pregnancy were unfamiliar – but the lines about childlessness really resonated. I take off one star just because I wasn’t wild about the ending, but I really did enjoy reading it (in pretty much one sitting – I was riveted). Four stars.

Recently, the effects that childhood trauma has on adult behavior is discussed in the areas of psychology and especially, criminal law. Children are considered resilient but that strength has its limitations. Too often, when we read about horrible acts people commit, there is a story of childhood abuse or torture. The child's mind and soul cannot absorb it all and come out as a fully functioning adult.

Michael Robotham's new novel, The Secrets She Keeps, tells a story of one such human who suffered as a child and that suffering continued through her life. MR's character, Agatha, is immediately depicted as one of those young people who live life on the edge. Her job is shelving groceries, and her boss is both indifferent and disrespectful. Agatha observes others in London and wishes and wonders why she can't have some of that, a happy life, full of people who like her and want to be with her.

The mystery and suspense in the story come from pregnancy. Agatha meets a customer in her store who is pregnant. She latches on to their similarities and fantasizes about how they will both take care of their newborns. She plans a life with her new baby and a friendship/obsession with Meghan, the woman with a perfect life. Agatha has plans, and those plans include Meghan.

The writing of this psychological thriller is thoroughly researched and written with fluid strokes. Once you begin, you won't be able to stop until you find out what happens. Agatha is neither an innocent nor a villain. She is damaged, and I wished for her to have one single person reach out and help. The Secrets She Keeps is a novel that sticks to your heart.

Most thrillers have to catch the reader’s attention early enough to make it worthwhile staying around for the payoff. However, THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS starts slowly and doesn’t gain steam until Part Two, midway through the book. But then the steam rises off every last page.

There are echoes of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN in this novel, which is also set in London and is a story of “have” and “have-not” women. Agatha, who is pregnant when we first meet her, works in a supermarket stocking shelves, but is obviously educated, whip-smart and living at a level above her current job status. Meghan lives nearby in a comfortable house where she writes a mummy blog and looks after her two children. She’s married to Jack, an attractive sportscaster, and they’re expecting a third, unplanned child in December. The two women meet a couple of times, and Agatha makes a point of befriending Meg, whom she idolizes for her effortless good looks, her family life and her aura of fulfillment.

Agatha’s own life, as we begin to see, has been very difficult, starting with a sexual relationship that she was forced into as a teenager. When she became pregnant, her parents never asked that the father --- a Jehovah’s Witness like her family --- be punished. Instead, they gave away the baby without Agatha’s permission, prompting her to run away from home. A few years later she married, but that relationship ended in tragedy.

Now, Agatha wants to be a mother again and settle down with her sometime boyfriend, Hayden, who is in the Navy. When Hayden, who has been at sea for seven months, seems unwilling to assume the responsibilities of fatherhood, Agatha visits his parents to enlist them. She has an uncanny ability to persuade people to see her side of a situation.

Meg, meanwhile, has a happy marriage but has committed an infidelity that weighs heavily on her, especially as she gets closer to her delivery. She knows the specific date because this time she will be having a cesarean section. It’s comforting that she and her new friend Agatha can talk about their aches and pains together, as their due dates are so close together and Jack is never around lately.

Slowly it becomes apparent what has been going on in Agatha’s mind, though author Michael Robotham is stealthy in the evidence he shares. But by the time Meg delivers, the reader is on high alert --- and will stay that way for the remainder of the book. However relaxed the first half was, the next 200 pages are all high octane. More important, in a way, is that as Robotham becomes laser-focused on Agatha and her maneuvering, a portrait emerges of an impressively complex character as she loses control over her plans and her own self.

Though the book alternates between Agatha's and Meg’s voices, it’s Agatha’s that grips the reader in this impressively compelling story of maternal love and loss.

Reviewed by Lorraine W. Shanley.

Two women. Two big secrets. One tragic intersection of their lives. Meghan and Agatha couldn't be more different in social status, lifestyle, background and, most importantly, in the ability to give birth. Both of them are hiding critical secrets, desperately afraid of certain life-altering secrets being revealed. They become friends in a seemingly accidental way, but when a crisis occurs, the web of lies begins to unravel, with kidnapping, heartbreak, and murder ensuing. I enjoyed reading this book, and, although it was not unputdownable, I was always happy to return to it, and quickly became engrossed in it when I did.
The intrigue depends on the two protagonists being well described and believable, and, for the most part, this is true. However, to me, it felt a bit "off", as if I were reading about people from a different culture, and did not always ring true to my experience of being a woman, or to the lives of women I know. The glorification of childbirth is something that seemed overdone, and towards the end I felt it was a bit preachy, being a little too explicit about conclusions the readers should be able to deduce for themselves.
Regardless, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I especially liked the compassionate way he described the perpetrator, portraying her as a complex character, with many reasons for this terrible act she committed. I also think his description of someone struggling with mental issues was credible and handled very well. I liked both women, which made the suspense more intense, and was glad that there was a relatively happy ending for them both.

Note: I received an eARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.