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A review by poziomka86
Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman
2.0
I got this book knowing nothing about Laura Lippman’s writing, being completely ignorant about any of her novels, certainly knowing nothing about this book, other than what the blurbs on the back say. It was dirt cheap, seemed to be a promise of an easy read for when my mind is rather murky (or simply absent) so I went with it.
Easy read I wanted, easy read is what I got, although it turned out to be a typical mystery – stuff I am not too fond of. The gist of the story is the murder of a 9-month old black baby by two 11-year old white girls. Seven years later, after the culprits are released from their juvenile detention centers, little girls keep disappearing, just for a minute, or for an hour, only to be found before anyone has the time to stir serious panic. Until one time a 3-year old baby girl disappears, this time for good. That’s where “Every Secret Thing” takes off, and that’s also where it’s starting to get worse and worse.
This book is all about characters, which I normally enjoy, except here most of them are irritating and unlikable. The most interesting character is one of the girls’ mother – Helen Manning – a single mother with almost obsessive dedication to original tastes in everything. The girls themselves, Ronnie and Alice, are portrayed in a way that eludes any concrete pinpointing and labeling. Unfortunately we do not get too much time with these characters. Instead we listen to stories of an annoyingly insecure detective Nancy, or of a whiny and plain-witted reporter Mira. There are more characters that serve very little purpose and that you just want to wave away as if they were a couple of bothersome flies but, ALAS, you cannot.
The plot. Well, you’ll love it if you love SECRETS. Man, is there a pile of secrets or, rather, the sneaky-sneaky hints of existing secrets. I am being sort of sarcastic here because these hints were getting rather trying on my patience after a while. I am not even sure if they were all explained in the end or not, there were so many of them. I realize that the title is “Every Secret Thing” but, please, stop teasing me like I am a simpleton. I have a brain and I can see clearly what there is that is left to be explained, I don’t need for anyone to reiterate it to me. Other than that, the plot is fast-paced, perhaps a little clunky right before we get most of the answers to most of our possible questions, and then we close the book relieved we don’t have to meet most of these petty, self-absorbed characters ever again.
Easy read I wanted, easy read is what I got, although it turned out to be a typical mystery – stuff I am not too fond of. The gist of the story is the murder of a 9-month old black baby by two 11-year old white girls. Seven years later, after the culprits are released from their juvenile detention centers, little girls keep disappearing, just for a minute, or for an hour, only to be found before anyone has the time to stir serious panic. Until one time a 3-year old baby girl disappears, this time for good. That’s where “Every Secret Thing” takes off, and that’s also where it’s starting to get worse and worse.
This book is all about characters, which I normally enjoy, except here most of them are irritating and unlikable. The most interesting character is one of the girls’ mother – Helen Manning – a single mother with almost obsessive dedication to original tastes in everything. The girls themselves, Ronnie and Alice, are portrayed in a way that eludes any concrete pinpointing and labeling. Unfortunately we do not get too much time with these characters. Instead we listen to stories of an annoyingly insecure detective Nancy, or of a whiny and plain-witted reporter Mira. There are more characters that serve very little purpose and that you just want to wave away as if they were a couple of bothersome flies but, ALAS, you cannot.
The plot. Well, you’ll love it if you love SECRETS. Man, is there a pile of secrets or, rather, the sneaky-sneaky hints of existing secrets. I am being sort of sarcastic here because these hints were getting rather trying on my patience after a while. I am not even sure if they were all explained in the end or not, there were so many of them. I realize that the title is “Every Secret Thing” but, please, stop teasing me like I am a simpleton. I have a brain and I can see clearly what there is that is left to be explained, I don’t need for anyone to reiterate it to me. Other than that, the plot is fast-paced, perhaps a little clunky right before we get most of the answers to most of our possible questions, and then we close the book relieved we don’t have to meet most of these petty, self-absorbed characters ever again.