Nasty Little Secrets: A Novel
USA TODAY BESTSELLER!
"A smart, twisty debut that will keep you guessing until the final shocking twist . . . Readers take note—Gabbie Hanks is a writer to watch!” —Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Hosts
An infamous murder case is blown back open when a crime writer’s sister goes missing—and her bestselling book might be the key to finding her.
Rose Dearling’s life changed forever when her brother was imprisoned for the murder of his high school sweetheart. Now, a decade after the crime ripped her family and Florida hometown apart, Rose is the only one who still believes he didn’t do it. So much so that she wrote a bestselling book about the case to cement his innocence. This may have gained her a bad reputation, but it also bought her a new life in Manhattan, far away from where it all began.
Then Rose gets a call that shatters her world for a second time: her younger sister has gone missing. Back home and under the same roof as her family for the first time in years, Rose begins the search for her sister. But when connections between both past and present cases emerge, Rose realizes that her own book could hold all the answers . . .
Propulsive and razor-sharp, Nasty Little Secrets is a crackling psychological suspense about family secrets and small-town scandal, which grips you until the final, jaw-dropping twist.
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Community Reviews
If you want an atmospheric, suspenseful mystery book, this is for you! I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Rose is the main character. There had been a murder and her oldest brother, William, was convicted of it. Will and Alexandria (Alex) had been sweethearts for four years. They had sex the morning of their high school graduation. Alex was murdered that night. Rose does not believe William would have ever killed her. But Will's semen inside Alex was a big part of what got Will convicted.
Rose became a true-crime writer living in Manhattan. Rose wrote a bestselling fiction book based on the case called "The Smileys Next Door." Her intent in writing it was to establish that her brother could not, would not have killed Alex. While in the real case she doesn't believe the same, in her book she has the killer being the high school senior's father.
It's been a decade. Rose's baby sister, Hazel, has now gone missing. That brings Rose back home to Florida from Manhattan. She looks into Hazel's current and past life. It leads her to similarities between Hazel's disappearance and Alex's murder. And she finds out that Hazel had been looking into Alex's murder when Hazel went missing.
The evolving story is filled with sibling relationships, morally grey characters, and family secrets. There are several credible suspects for the killer and many red herrings. See if you figure out the killer!
