All Her Secrets by Sue Watson
Genre: Psychological thriller, domestic thriller
Read: 11th May 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(release date: 29th May 2019)
★★★★★ 5 stars
I've not read Sue Watson before, probably because her best known genre is romantic comedies and I'm a mystery thriller girl, but this was something else. ALL HER SECRETS is Watson's second offering in this genre and I have to say she does it well.
ALL HER SECRETS is a darkly woven story that has it all - a stalker, deceit, betrayal, paranoia, friendship, infertility and lots and lots of secrets. With characters you will love to hate as well as mysterious perspective thrown in every few chapters, this book has so many twists and delectable conclusion that will leave you breathless.
Lucy and Matt are happily married living on Mulberry Lane in the Treetops Estate (which kind of had a whole "Desperate Housewives" Wisteria Lane feel to it) when minor celebrity Amber breezes into the neighbourhood, moving in a few doors down in the most beautiful house on the Lane.
Amber Young is a weather girl on the local TV network who'd had a promising career at one stage until life took an unexpected turn with the death of her husband so, grieving her loss, Amber took time out. But showbiz doesn't wait around and upon her return she had become yesterday's news and was no longer looking at the career she had been aiming for. But for the women of Mulberry Lane, she was still a celebrity, one of which they had never met before.
Lucy is immediately taken with the beautiful Amber and wastes no time in baking a cake (which I just knew was going to backfire) to welcome her to Mulberry Lane. I, on the other hand, hated Amber on sight. First, she ignored Lucy's knocking and upon her second attempt was completely rude, saying "I don't eat cake" without even a smile or a thank you. She didn't even have the good grace to be grateful or even nice about it. I felt for poor Lucy as she took her cake back home for the second time. At least her and Matt could enjoy it together, as they had the first one she'd baked.
So it came as a complete surprise when Amber turns up a the local book club Lucy had mentioned to her and which she'd shown no interest in at the time. And instead of discussing books, the entire evening revolved around Amber regaling them with extravagant stories of trips to Cannes and millionaire's yachts. The women were awestruck. It was on the way home that evening that Amber befriended Lucy, though I'm sure Lucy had thought it was the other way around, apologising for "the other day" but she didn't sound the least bit sorry to me.
Twelve months later and Lucy and Amber are firm friends, often going out on the town to wine bars or the cinema for a chick flick. The two women are inseparable and Lucy has never known anyone quite like Amber. I found myself feeling sorry for poor Kirsty, Lucy's best friend before Amber, taking a backseat to "the funnier and more glamorous" Amber. However Kirsty wasn't as blind to Amber as Lucy was and could see right through her from the beginning. But Lucy wouldn't hear a word said against her new friend and in the end stopped seeing Kirsty altogether.
In Lucy's defence, all her other friends in Mulberry Lane had children - something which Lucy and Matt had never been blessed with despite numerous IVF attempts. So the unattached, single, motherless Amber was all the more attractive to her as conversations with her didn't revolve around toilet training, breast feeding and all the usual mother and baby stories that pained her to listen to with her other friends. It was a club of which she would never be a member and she felt on the outside, and she had to pretend to share in their joy when for her she ached to be a mother. But with Amber she didn't have to pretend.
Lucy and Amber are so completely different! Lucy is all fluffy and light who thinks baking and eating cakes solves everything - I have to admit, I'm with her on that! Amber has a harder edge and strives for perfection, not worried about who she steps on or over to get there. She knows what she wants in life though I have to wonder that sometimes whilst reading their story, because so much of what Amber did clearly displayed not only a lack of judgement but also one who really doesn't know what she wants.
When Amber starts receiving threatening texts I must admit I wouldn't have been surprised if it was Amber herself. She was that type of person who thrived on attention and if she wasn't getting it, then she would generate it. The fact that Amber wasn't taking it seriously also rang alarm bells. But Lucy DOES take it seriously and calls the police to report them. Unfortunately, Amber deleted the other texts, so much was her concern. However, "the stalker" gained Amber the attention she craved and it was clear she relished it, although not Lucy's mother hen routine which only served to irritate her.
But the text messages are just the beginning which set off a chain of events resulting in Lucy, wanting to be a good friend, inviting Amber to stay with her and Matt so that she feels safe. The threats only escalate and Amber, blowing hot and cold on the matter, agrees. But things only get worse when first Lucy discovers a positive pregnancy test and shock makes way for practicalities. She feels it would be best that Amber stay with them until the baby is born but once little Mia enters the world, Lucy isn't prepared for what's to come. The house may be feeling a little too crowded but Lucy discovers that she can't imagine life without Mia. Only problem is, she's Amber's daughter...not her's.
The tables have turned. Who is playing who?
ALL HER SECRETS is told primarily from Lucy's POV, particularly in the first part of the story, with a few chapters sprinkled in between by an unnamed narrator. It's not until the second half do we hear Amber's voice, which brings a different perspective to the table. As everything up until this point has been told through Lucy's eyes it's only now that we see the story from Amber's and it does shed a whole new different light on things.
As the story progresses it's obvious that trouble is brewing and you can really feel the trepidation the deeper the story goes. It is completely engrossing, intriguing and compelling - like a car crash you pass on the motorway; you don't want to look but you find yourself drawn in. Lucy is too nice and compliant whilst Amber is just basically a self-centred bitch who messes with your head.
Throughout the book I found myself wondering whose voice it was we were hearing from those anonymous chapters. With three main players in the story, I felt it had to be one of them and I went through stages of thinking it was each of them. Of course this anonymous voice also appeared to be the stalker but that didn't deter me from suspecting it was Amber herself. After all, they all seemed to share the same sorry backgrounds. But the person I settled on being the likeliest candidate in the end turned out to be "that voice". And even though I saw the ending before it happened, it was still packed a punch that left me breathless.
ALL HER SECRETS just goes beyond all my expectations. Just when I thought it would be another average read, particularly when Amber made her entrance, as each woman wove her tangled web I was drawn in and could not escape until the very last page!
From romantic comedies to psychological thrillers? I say Sue Watson has made such a mark in this genre she should leave the romcoms behind for this more dark, twisted but delectable style. She totally nails it!
I would like to thank #SueWatson, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #AllHerSecrets in exchange for an honest review.
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