Secrets

by Michael A. Smith

Frank Montgomery and his family love their life in the placid suburb of Lake View. Members of the seven households surrounding the lake form an extended family. They occasionally play practical jokes on each other. However, the harmless pranks suddenly turn ugly, and very personal. Feelings are hurt, alliances form, and fingers are pointed. Then, the suspected perpetrator, Vernon Richey, is brutally murdered. While investigating the crime for the local newspaper, Frank discovers that many of his neighbors harbor secrets that, if revealed, would damage their reputations or incriminate them. Did someone kill Vernon to protect a secret he had uncovered? Or, is there a puppet master in the neighborhood, attempting to implicate the others while hiding his or her own motive? How long will the killer tolerate Frank’s snooping? Secrets reveals a dark side of suburbia. It's enough to make you wonder about your neighbors. Who are they really? What are they up to? Are you watching them? Are they watching you?

Genres: Mystery

228 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Michael A. Smith was born in 1942. He earned a baccalaureate degree in history from Kansas Wesleyan University. He attended graduate school at the University of Kansas for two years.
From 1968-73, he worked for several Midwestern newspapers as a reporter, columnist, editor, and editorial writer, specializing in coverage of politics and education.
From 1973-81, he was Associate Director, Illinois Board of Higher Education. Thereafter, he served as Press Secretary to U.S. Congressman Richard Durbin, who later became a U.S. Senator representing Illinois.
From 1984-87, he was Vice President, Public Relations, for the Futures and Options Industry Association, a Washington, D.C. trade association.
During 1992-93, he worked as as a reporter for The Training Times, the newspaper of the Seventh Army Training Command, Grafenwoehr, Germany. Among other subjects, he wrote about the plight of refugees from the Balkan wars.
Since then, he has pursued creative writing, having published to date eight novels and a book of essays. He is also working on an illustrated children's story and several screenplays. (Source: Amazon.com)

Reviews

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having no idea who the perpetrator is, Secrets holds the reader’s interest from the opening pages until the end. Residents on both sides of the lake play pranks against each other. Soon the pranks become vicious ending in murder. Frank, also a resident, remains neutral throughout and is determined to find out which of them is guilty of the death of one of their own. What he discovers of each of the residents are secrets that he believes someone else has also uncovered.

It’s a stretch to believe a police detective would be feeding so much information to a news reporter as it relates to a murder case. Such is it with the detective whom Frank calls Fatso. Frank is allowed into places other reporters probably couldn’t get close to.

With last names being used in place of first names at times and lots of characters to keep track of, it gets a bit confusing.

All in all, a good story with much happening throughout.

[Lynda Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hoped to like this as it wasn't full of mistakes which in itself gave it an extra star but it was sooooooo confusing !! I only made it in 11% and had to give up. It features 7 couples who are all neighbours but I got totally lost. I even made notes of who was married to who and which side of the lake they lived, which helped, but then the kids started to be mentioned too and that was enough for me, I'm afraid. It made it such hard-going.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this, it kept me guessing "who did it", and I really liked the characters. So why give it only 4 stars? There was something missing. It felt a little flat in a few places, and my mind wandered when it should've been on the book. Really worth a read tho.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

G

G

the many people who think that practical pranks are ok to. play on there community cause problems in this case murder.