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urpsdempsey's review against another edition
2.0
I thought this was a little overdone with the secrets.
lgiegerich's review against another edition
4.0
Surprisingly twisty & well-written, all the way to the end!
thebooktrail88's review against another edition
4.0
A holiday home, a party, a missing child, a ‘ripped from the headlines’ novel
Spending time at a holiday home in Bournemouth with an influential bunch of people sounds like a nice premise but this group are never going to be your friends. They are rich, spoilt, self absorbed and their personalities are ‘unique’. The wealth and privilege they enjoy is evident from the holiday home at Sandbanks and the food and drink on offer. the way they speak, their attitude. Each has reacted differently to Coco’s disappearance. Now Sean has died, his fourth wife and all those left behind start to reveal their secrets, their memories of what that fateful weekend involved.
Two narratives, past and present, with the facade of happiness ripped up and revealed amongst a media frenzy, now a funeral in the Sandbanks community.
There is not too much I can or want to say about this book really for the fear of spoiling it. Largely character driven rather than location based as such, this is like looking inside a family, behind the facade of wealth and every kind of judgement that brings and really revealing piece by piece how other people live, how families cope with a disappearance of a young child and what this all means 12 years later. I can’t say I liked any one of the characters but then this is what makes the novel so fascinating. Parents partying whilst their little children look on, a house full of wealth but manipulation and devious secrets too. I’m always chilled in an Alex Marwood novel and this was no exception!
Spending time at a holiday home in Bournemouth with an influential bunch of people sounds like a nice premise but this group are never going to be your friends. They are rich, spoilt, self absorbed and their personalities are ‘unique’. The wealth and privilege they enjoy is evident from the holiday home at Sandbanks and the food and drink on offer. the way they speak, their attitude. Each has reacted differently to Coco’s disappearance. Now Sean has died, his fourth wife and all those left behind start to reveal their secrets, their memories of what that fateful weekend involved.
Two narratives, past and present, with the facade of happiness ripped up and revealed amongst a media frenzy, now a funeral in the Sandbanks community.
There is not too much I can or want to say about this book really for the fear of spoiling it. Largely character driven rather than location based as such, this is like looking inside a family, behind the facade of wealth and every kind of judgement that brings and really revealing piece by piece how other people live, how families cope with a disappearance of a young child and what this all means 12 years later. I can’t say I liked any one of the characters but then this is what makes the novel so fascinating. Parents partying whilst their little children look on, a house full of wealth but manipulation and devious secrets too. I’m always chilled in an Alex Marwood novel and this was no exception!
bnross925's review against another edition
3.0
3/5. Good...not great. Twist in the epilogue...I didn't predict it, which was nice. But felt the overall plot was predictable and the characters were detestable
kalkie's review against another edition
3.0
I must admit, this was my second attempt at reading "The Darkest Secret" after previously giving up on it. This time I persevered and I'm kind of glad I did. It took me a while to realise the timeline was jumping between past and present events, as the present events aren't dated, but the characters are the same, but once I'd untangled the characters and the style (jumping from emails to witness statements to storyline) I started to get into it and found it was quite gripping. Unfortunately I found the story tailing off somewhat from that point until it limped towards its "not very surprising" ending.
The characters are mostly unpleasant, self-centred, selfish and downright unlikable; so it's hard to find something to hold on to as the story progresses. I also figured out the "twist" at the end way before it was revealed, so there wasn't anything to really draw me in and keep me gripped to the storyline.
It was an OK read, and I may read more from Marwood, but not any time soon.
This review was originally posted on Babs' Bookshelf
The characters are mostly unpleasant, self-centred, selfish and downright unlikable; so it's hard to find something to hold on to as the story progresses. I also figured out the "twist" at the end way before it was revealed, so there wasn't anything to really draw me in and keep me gripped to the storyline.
It was an OK read, and I may read more from Marwood, but not any time soon.
This review was originally posted on Babs' Bookshelf
sabpoe's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Plot is predictable and disappointing
tesslinnebank's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
leona_omahony's review against another edition
5.0
An absolutely brilliant book and one I highly recommend. It's written in a way that has you going from present times to past and can be a little confusing at first but I soon got into the swing of it. This book had some horrible characters and there wasn't any I warmed to but that's part of the story and it really works . I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers.