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Every Secret Thing
Alice and Ronnie, aged 11, are on their way home in disgrace after Ronnie has hit their hostess, when they see a baby stroller with a baby girl sleeping in it, left without anyone nearby on the top steps of a house. They take the child to look after it, and four days later the child is found dead by a young detective policewoman. The girls are arrested, found guilty and incarcerated. Then, aged 18, they are released from their separate prisons. Another child goes missing and the same detective gets the case. All is not as it seems to be, and the unravelling of what happened makes a brilliantly creepy story with superb characters and a great deal of atmosphere.
432 pages, ebook
First published September 2, 2003
404 people are currently reading
11257 people want to read
About the author
Laura Lippman
112 books6,337 followersSince Laura Lippman’s debut, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the “essential” crime writers of the last 100 years. Stephen King called her “special, even extraordinary,” and Gillian Flynn wrote, “She is simply a brilliant novelist.” Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her teenager.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,043 reviews
September 1, 2012
A big disappointment for me. The beginning of the book promises an offbeat, unique, psychological mystery. We are told that two fifth-grade girls murder a baby. However, the promise, the tension, and the mystery slowly dissolve in a flood of lengthy and completely irrelevant characterizations of marginal characters. The book would be much better if it were cut by about 60% in volume.
Out of the four main characters, Helen, Alice, and Ronnie are quite skillfully drawn and psychologically believable. In fact, Helen is perhaps one of the most interesting characters I have encountered in years. I would like the book to be more about her, and about the girls. Cynthia, the grieving mother, is also vividly drawn, but she seems more of a repulsive caricature of a terminally vain and ultimately evil creature than a real person. Her grief is nullified by her self-centeredness. The characters of the detectives are not well built and they just seem to be devices to move the plot.
I am not sure whether it was Ms. Lippman's intention, but there is no sympathy in her writing towards the characters, no compassion. Maybe I am weird, but I like an author to have at least a bit of a human touch, some understanding of the fact that weakness is the essence of the human nature. Thus, for me, "Every Secret Thing" hopelessly fails as a novel, even if it barely passes as a mystery.
Out of the four main characters, Helen, Alice, and Ronnie are quite skillfully drawn and psychologically believable. In fact, Helen is perhaps one of the most interesting characters I have encountered in years. I would like the book to be more about her, and about the girls. Cynthia, the grieving mother, is also vividly drawn, but she seems more of a repulsive caricature of a terminally vain and ultimately evil creature than a real person. Her grief is nullified by her self-centeredness. The characters of the detectives are not well built and they just seem to be devices to move the plot.
I am not sure whether it was Ms. Lippman's intention, but there is no sympathy in her writing towards the characters, no compassion. Maybe I am weird, but I like an author to have at least a bit of a human touch, some understanding of the fact that weakness is the essence of the human nature. Thus, for me, "Every Secret Thing" hopelessly fails as a novel, even if it barely passes as a mystery.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2014
This was the first Laura Lippman book I've read. I'm told she is a great mystery writer but this book is not one of her best. It started out as a great mystery but I found it rather slow. I was hoping it was leading up to a great ending. I must admit part of it kept me guessing but the end result left me disappointed. It made me feel that parts of the book were not even needed..just added as "filler" pieces. This book was turned into a movie and that's part of the reason I wanted to read it.
November 19, 2014
This is a hard book to read, but not because it isn't written superbly. The difficulty is that there isn't a pleasant character, deed, or thought from page one to the end. No joy. The complex story unfolds bit by bit, grudgingly revealed under Lippman's very capable control. I guess you have to decide, at the end when all is known, who you feel the most sorry for. But as soon as you start to feel bad for someone, you have second thoughts. Nobody deserves sympathy. At least nobody who's still alive.
July 15, 2015
“The past was worth remembering and knowing in its own right. It was not behind us, never truly behind us, but under us, holding us up, a foundation for all that was to come and everything that had ever been.”
----Laura Lippman
Laura Lippman, an American award-winning NY Times best-selling author, has penned an incredibly nail-biting as well as edgy thriller, Every Secret Thing , that was published in the year 2004 and that has won quite a lot of literary awards. The story revolves around two little girls who unfortunately became a part of a horrific and sad murder of a little baby who was left abandoned by a sitter, seven years later, the disappearance of yet another child speculates and brings back the same memory of that child and will life ever be same for those two little girls who have just served seven years in juvenile prison.
Synopsis:
From critically acclaimed, multiple-award winner Laura Lippman comes a riveting story of love and murder, guilt and innocence
Two little girls banished from a neighborhood birthday party find an abandoned stroller with an infant inside on an unfamiliar Baltimore street. What happens next is shocking and terrible, causing the irreparable devastation of three separate families.
Seven years later, Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller, now eighteen, are released from “kid prison” to begin their lives over again. But the secrets swirling around the original crime continue to haunt the parents, the lawyers, the police, and all the adults in Alice and Ronnie’s lives. And now another child has disappeared, under freakishly similar circumstances.
Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller two eleven year old girls are kicked out of a friend's pool party early because of their misbehavior. On their way to home, they come across an abandoned baby, named, Olivia Barnes, across a porch, whom they steal away thus resulting on their imprisonment in a juvenile prison and the case led by county detective Nancy Porter, everyone gets the justice for the baby's lucky fate of getting murdered by two little children. Seven years later, Alice and Ronnie, promised of a fresh and new life, is once again pulled down the same horrifying memory lane of trials and everything when another baby disappears in the same fashion. So it is now Nancy's duty to find out the real source and the real killer of the crime.
Honestly, why haven't I heard of this author before the movie adaption of the book, bad publicity maybe! I will definitely have to buy all her books after today, since this thriller not only left me thrilled to the very core but the book never once failed to challenge me with it's complexities, questions, innocence and twists. Yeah there is a movie and after watching it, I was completely bowled over by the nicely-woven plot and that led me to look up the author and ordering the very book online.
This story is woven with so many layers, firstly from the premise as well as from the initial chapters it feels very obvious that a bad and vulnerable as well as outspoken white girl like Ronnie and her only friend, Alice who is quite the opposite of Ronnie, together might have killed the African-American baby, Olivia, and all through out the plot, the author poses a question onto her readers' minds about which girl was the one to kill Olivia and that too occurring in a racially-charged-up neighborhood in Baltimore.
The writing is fantastic and I've rarely came across anything so brilliant yet challenging at the same time. The prose is evocative since the story sways to-and-fro seven years before prison and seven years after prison life for both Alica and Ronnie. The author's eye and keen to tiniest details are very evident while sketching out two young girls in the prologue of the story.
The story revolves on what actually happened to Olivia and to the other disappeared kid in the neighborhood through Alice and Ronnie's testimony through variously distinct characters, that are sketched with lots of depth. So the only thing that connects the readers through the point of revelation of the actual happening of the events are through testimony of various people from parents to teachers to police officers to etc. Yes, that means the plot is loosely a character-driven one, as the author takes her readers on a joy ride to let us see through the loves of these human beings and how they have accepted a crime in their lives.
The characters are all thoroughly psychologically flawed as well as they all harbor secrets deep into their souls. The adults, like Nancy, the detective who went at great lengths to bring justice to Olivia's murder, Cynthia, mother of Olivia, still seven years later yearning for vengeance while conceiving a child right after Olivia's death, Sharon Kepelmen, who can't get over the case when she was Alice's public defender, and Alice's single mother, Helen, who is also a school teacher and is still holding back her past, are vividly painted in the novel and how they are still obsessed to the very core.
The protagonists are a brilliant example of character portrayal in a character-driven crime novel, where both Alice and Ronnie are a stark contrast to each other's demeanor and which also questions us the upbringing of a child in a dysfunctional to a single-motherhood kind of families. They are bound to remain as being imprinted upon the readers minds long after reading the book.
The best thing of this crime thriller is that there is no motive, no anger no reason no agenda to take revenge or anything that will lead to a horrifying murder of a baby, so only by depending solely on the cast of characters, the mystery cannot unfold on it's own. Surprisingly there are no main male characters in the book thus making it a women-centric story. This is a book which questions our society and the way it poses the questions feels like a cold hard slap on the face about the way we are raising our children/monsters.
There was not a moment when the book disappointed me with it's unrealistic take of the story, at every point, the author instilled a belief into my heart through this story and the climax is one of a kind and is quite alarming. In a nutshell, this book is a page-turner and like any other literary novel, enlightens a human mind as well as leaves the reader unraveled with the extent of the suspense.
Do watch the movie adaption with the same title, that is directed by Amy J. Berg, featuring, Dakota Fanning, Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, Danielle Macdonald, which released on 15th May.
----Laura Lippman
Laura Lippman, an American award-winning NY Times best-selling author, has penned an incredibly nail-biting as well as edgy thriller, Every Secret Thing , that was published in the year 2004 and that has won quite a lot of literary awards. The story revolves around two little girls who unfortunately became a part of a horrific and sad murder of a little baby who was left abandoned by a sitter, seven years later, the disappearance of yet another child speculates and brings back the same memory of that child and will life ever be same for those two little girls who have just served seven years in juvenile prison.
Synopsis:
From critically acclaimed, multiple-award winner Laura Lippman comes a riveting story of love and murder, guilt and innocence
Two little girls banished from a neighborhood birthday party find an abandoned stroller with an infant inside on an unfamiliar Baltimore street. What happens next is shocking and terrible, causing the irreparable devastation of three separate families.
Seven years later, Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller, now eighteen, are released from “kid prison” to begin their lives over again. But the secrets swirling around the original crime continue to haunt the parents, the lawyers, the police, and all the adults in Alice and Ronnie’s lives. And now another child has disappeared, under freakishly similar circumstances.
Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller two eleven year old girls are kicked out of a friend's pool party early because of their misbehavior. On their way to home, they come across an abandoned baby, named, Olivia Barnes, across a porch, whom they steal away thus resulting on their imprisonment in a juvenile prison and the case led by county detective Nancy Porter, everyone gets the justice for the baby's lucky fate of getting murdered by two little children. Seven years later, Alice and Ronnie, promised of a fresh and new life, is once again pulled down the same horrifying memory lane of trials and everything when another baby disappears in the same fashion. So it is now Nancy's duty to find out the real source and the real killer of the crime.
Honestly, why haven't I heard of this author before the movie adaption of the book, bad publicity maybe! I will definitely have to buy all her books after today, since this thriller not only left me thrilled to the very core but the book never once failed to challenge me with it's complexities, questions, innocence and twists. Yeah there is a movie and after watching it, I was completely bowled over by the nicely-woven plot and that led me to look up the author and ordering the very book online.
This story is woven with so many layers, firstly from the premise as well as from the initial chapters it feels very obvious that a bad and vulnerable as well as outspoken white girl like Ronnie and her only friend, Alice who is quite the opposite of Ronnie, together might have killed the African-American baby, Olivia, and all through out the plot, the author poses a question onto her readers' minds about which girl was the one to kill Olivia and that too occurring in a racially-charged-up neighborhood in Baltimore.
The writing is fantastic and I've rarely came across anything so brilliant yet challenging at the same time. The prose is evocative since the story sways to-and-fro seven years before prison and seven years after prison life for both Alica and Ronnie. The author's eye and keen to tiniest details are very evident while sketching out two young girls in the prologue of the story.
The story revolves on what actually happened to Olivia and to the other disappeared kid in the neighborhood through Alice and Ronnie's testimony through variously distinct characters, that are sketched with lots of depth. So the only thing that connects the readers through the point of revelation of the actual happening of the events are through testimony of various people from parents to teachers to police officers to etc. Yes, that means the plot is loosely a character-driven one, as the author takes her readers on a joy ride to let us see through the loves of these human beings and how they have accepted a crime in their lives.
The characters are all thoroughly psychologically flawed as well as they all harbor secrets deep into their souls. The adults, like Nancy, the detective who went at great lengths to bring justice to Olivia's murder, Cynthia, mother of Olivia, still seven years later yearning for vengeance while conceiving a child right after Olivia's death, Sharon Kepelmen, who can't get over the case when she was Alice's public defender, and Alice's single mother, Helen, who is also a school teacher and is still holding back her past, are vividly painted in the novel and how they are still obsessed to the very core.
The protagonists are a brilliant example of character portrayal in a character-driven crime novel, where both Alice and Ronnie are a stark contrast to each other's demeanor and which also questions us the upbringing of a child in a dysfunctional to a single-motherhood kind of families. They are bound to remain as being imprinted upon the readers minds long after reading the book.
The best thing of this crime thriller is that there is no motive, no anger no reason no agenda to take revenge or anything that will lead to a horrifying murder of a baby, so only by depending solely on the cast of characters, the mystery cannot unfold on it's own. Surprisingly there are no main male characters in the book thus making it a women-centric story. This is a book which questions our society and the way it poses the questions feels like a cold hard slap on the face about the way we are raising our children/monsters.
There was not a moment when the book disappointed me with it's unrealistic take of the story, at every point, the author instilled a belief into my heart through this story and the climax is one of a kind and is quite alarming. In a nutshell, this book is a page-turner and like any other literary novel, enlightens a human mind as well as leaves the reader unraveled with the extent of the suspense.
Do watch the movie adaption with the same title, that is directed by Amy J. Berg, featuring, Dakota Fanning, Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, Danielle Macdonald, which released on 15th May.
May 15, 2009
I was in the mood for a good mystery, but this book didn't do the trick. The last 50 or so pages were like "Oh, and I forgot to mention THIS" and "I left out this part." Sort of like listening to a friend tell a story and then patching on the details after it ended. Too bad, because Laura Lippman has written a lot of books, but after my first read, I don't think I'll pick up another one. Oh, I forgot to mention that I left out this one part...
March 25, 2013
Review contains spoilers.
Oh this book...where to start. I do think Laura Lippman is a great writer, but there were things about this book that annoyed me. One was the whole Alice is fat thing. Okay, we get that she is overweight. Does it need to be mentioned almost every time she appears. "Oh, Alice is fat!" "There's fat Alice again." Even when she is thinking about herself, it was included more often than not how fat she is. The one time her weight is mentioned it was something like, "She looked like she was about 200 pounds!" Now, the way it had been spoken of, like she was this rotund whale, I was thinking she must be about 250/300 pounds. Granted, I'm not sure her height mentioned. Regardless, it grew tired after awhile, Alice constantly being mentioned as fat. Fat, hulking, rotund, it got old quick.
And Ronnie...the portrayal of her character changed halfway through the book. I'm not sure if it wasn't supposed to be that way all along, but it threw me for a loop. She is written to be one way and there is not even a hint of the way it actually was.
The Cynthia character I found to be so unlikeable I had a hard time feeling sympathy for her. She was so judgmental about everyone. She is quick to look down on people and she came across as very holier than thou. Sharon was beyond rude in her interactions, and I didn't find it to make much sense.
I don't know, it was frustrating to me, because I did think it was well written, but I found a lot of things in this book annoying. Also, I really thought that Nancy was going to be more involved in the first crime than she was. The way the early hints were given it made it sound like there was much more than just her being the one who found the body. Also, I was confused about what happened when she was a police officer in Baltimore and why she had to leave? I read through the passage several times and still couldn't quite understand exactly what happened.
Bottom line, I liked the book, but found it frustrating. However, it was quite a page turner and I finished it quickly. I will read more by Lippman, but if there's another one like this, I'm not sure I'll continue reading her novels.
Oh this book...where to start. I do think Laura Lippman is a great writer, but there were things about this book that annoyed me. One was the whole Alice is fat thing. Okay, we get that she is overweight. Does it need to be mentioned almost every time she appears. "Oh, Alice is fat!" "There's fat Alice again." Even when she is thinking about herself, it was included more often than not how fat she is. The one time her weight is mentioned it was something like, "She looked like she was about 200 pounds!" Now, the way it had been spoken of, like she was this rotund whale, I was thinking she must be about 250/300 pounds. Granted, I'm not sure her height mentioned. Regardless, it grew tired after awhile, Alice constantly being mentioned as fat. Fat, hulking, rotund, it got old quick.
And Ronnie...the portrayal of her character changed halfway through the book. I'm not sure if it wasn't supposed to be that way all along, but it threw me for a loop. She is written to be one way and there is not even a hint of the way it actually was.
The Cynthia character I found to be so unlikeable I had a hard time feeling sympathy for her. She was so judgmental about everyone. She is quick to look down on people and she came across as very holier than thou. Sharon was beyond rude in her interactions, and I didn't find it to make much sense.
I don't know, it was frustrating to me, because I did think it was well written, but I found a lot of things in this book annoying. Also, I really thought that Nancy was going to be more involved in the first crime than she was. The way the early hints were given it made it sound like there was much more than just her being the one who found the body. Also, I was confused about what happened when she was a police officer in Baltimore and why she had to leave? I read through the passage several times and still couldn't quite understand exactly what happened.
Bottom line, I liked the book, but found it frustrating. However, it was quite a page turner and I finished it quickly. I will read more by Lippman, but if there's another one like this, I'm not sure I'll continue reading her novels.
March 27, 2013
Laura Lippman is another author recommended to me after my recent Gillian Flynn binge. She has a weighty volume of work to choose from, but I was drawn to the description of Every Secret Thing for my first .
11 year olds Ronnie and Alice are neighborhood friends unexpectedly -- and perhaps unjustly -- banished from a classmate's birthday party at the community pool. In their short walk home, a shocking crime will change both girls' lives forever. The story picks up seven years later, when both Ronnie and Alice are released from the juvenile justice system for their parts in the death of a baby girl that fateful day back in sixth grade. Both girls are deeply damaged by their experience, but trying to adjust to a new adult life and move on. However, just days after the girls move back to the neighborhood, another child disappears under ominous circumstances, and everyone involved in the old case immediately considers them suspects. To solve the new missing child case, however, they first must unravel the real story of what happened seven years ago.
I enjoyed the story, which contained some genuine surprises, but no huge mind-blowing twists. Like many books of this genre, there is a serious shortage of likeable characters, but Lippman still manages to make them interesting. However, I wish the story had not been framed within the police procedural structure. If there had been a bit less focus on the detective team, I would have been more enthusiastic, I think. I would have liked to see more through the lens of teenaged Ronnie and Alice, and maybe even more flashbacks of what happened the afternoon after the girls left the birthday party.
This book isn't among my favorite in the genre, but I'm interesting in reading more by Lippman.
11 year olds Ronnie and Alice are neighborhood friends unexpectedly -- and perhaps unjustly -- banished from a classmate's birthday party at the community pool. In their short walk home, a shocking crime will change both girls' lives forever. The story picks up seven years later, when both Ronnie and Alice are released from the juvenile justice system for their parts in the death of a baby girl that fateful day back in sixth grade. Both girls are deeply damaged by their experience, but trying to adjust to a new adult life and move on. However, just days after the girls move back to the neighborhood, another child disappears under ominous circumstances, and everyone involved in the old case immediately considers them suspects. To solve the new missing child case, however, they first must unravel the real story of what happened seven years ago.
I enjoyed the story, which contained some genuine surprises, but no huge mind-blowing twists. Like many books of this genre, there is a serious shortage of likeable characters, but Lippman still manages to make them interesting. However, I wish the story had not been framed within the police procedural structure. If there had been a bit less focus on the detective team, I would have been more enthusiastic, I think. I would have liked to see more through the lens of teenaged Ronnie and Alice, and maybe even more flashbacks of what happened the afternoon after the girls left the birthday party.
This book isn't among my favorite in the genre, but I'm interesting in reading more by Lippman.
March 29, 2012
Reading this felt sort of like getting a root canal. No, getting a root canal was easier. There were so many random details thrown in about irrelevant characters that I literally got a headache. And they weren't interesting details either, just minutia, like where they ate lunch, where they shopped, or what type of books the usually checked out at the library. And the details weren't related to the mystery either, just random.
The mystery involves the murder of a baby by two twelve year old girls. The girls were kicked out of a party for saying something racist. This was later used as evidence to help convict them of the murder of this baby. The baby was black.
Besides the desire to see a train wreck type response, the rubber necking that goes with traffic accident type thing, I can't imagine being able to hold any interest or desire to finish this book. I suppose there were aspects to the murder that one might be curious about. Perhaps there were mitigating circumstances to allow some compassion for the twelve year olds, (one of whom was presumably guilty only because she was there but had nothing to do with it) but I'll never know because the reading of it made me sea sick and dizzy and I had to put it down or risk a mild case of bad writing induced bedspins.
The mystery involves the murder of a baby by two twelve year old girls. The girls were kicked out of a party for saying something racist. This was later used as evidence to help convict them of the murder of this baby. The baby was black.
Besides the desire to see a train wreck type response, the rubber necking that goes with traffic accident type thing, I can't imagine being able to hold any interest or desire to finish this book. I suppose there were aspects to the murder that one might be curious about. Perhaps there were mitigating circumstances to allow some compassion for the twelve year olds, (one of whom was presumably guilty only because she was there but had nothing to do with it) but I'll never know because the reading of it made me sea sick and dizzy and I had to put it down or risk a mild case of bad writing induced bedspins.
May 22, 2024
Peeling back the layers of the onion!
Laura Lippman’s EVERY SECRET THING is a quintessential psychological drama! That is to say, when you get down to where the rubber hits the road, there is really very little by way of suspense, or thrills, or action, or page-turning plot! What really happens takes place between the ears of all of the protagonists and what compels the reader is the unmasking of all of these thoughts, the peeling back of all of the layers of complex multi-flavoured onions and the ultimate re-combination of all of those sloughed skins into a unified fully revealed story that doesn’t make complete sense to the reader until that final page is turned.
Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller are but eleven years old when they kidnap and kill an infant in a Baltimore neighbourhood close to their home. A scant seven years later, (because of their “privileged” status as child offenders), they are released and sent back to their homes as eighteen year old adults to attempt to re-boot their lives as adult young women. In a bizarre string of unsolved “occurrences”, children disappear for a brief period of time and then re-appear disheveled but none the worse for wear after they have been reported missing. But when another child, who bears a strong resemblance to the second daughter of the mother of the original murdered child, disappears and fails to re-surface, the police naturally focus their investigations on Manning and Fuller.
For my tastes, EVERY SECRET THING succeeded but was just a little too labyrinthine, a little too convoluted, and definitely too sluggish to hold my interest to the point of elevating itself to page-turner thriller status. That said, some sidebar essays and commentary on such things as the punishment and incarceration of child offenders and the sealing of their records, suicide, and the all-too-frequent quite stunning banality of psychopathic evil make for some interesting reading and renewed my attention in areas where the plot was beginning (in my opinion) to falter.
Paul Weiss
Laura Lippman’s EVERY SECRET THING is a quintessential psychological drama! That is to say, when you get down to where the rubber hits the road, there is really very little by way of suspense, or thrills, or action, or page-turning plot! What really happens takes place between the ears of all of the protagonists and what compels the reader is the unmasking of all of these thoughts, the peeling back of all of the layers of complex multi-flavoured onions and the ultimate re-combination of all of those sloughed skins into a unified fully revealed story that doesn’t make complete sense to the reader until that final page is turned.
Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller are but eleven years old when they kidnap and kill an infant in a Baltimore neighbourhood close to their home. A scant seven years later, (because of their “privileged” status as child offenders), they are released and sent back to their homes as eighteen year old adults to attempt to re-boot their lives as adult young women. In a bizarre string of unsolved “occurrences”, children disappear for a brief period of time and then re-appear disheveled but none the worse for wear after they have been reported missing. But when another child, who bears a strong resemblance to the second daughter of the mother of the original murdered child, disappears and fails to re-surface, the police naturally focus their investigations on Manning and Fuller.
For my tastes, EVERY SECRET THING succeeded but was just a little too labyrinthine, a little too convoluted, and definitely too sluggish to hold my interest to the point of elevating itself to page-turner thriller status. That said, some sidebar essays and commentary on such things as the punishment and incarceration of child offenders and the sealing of their records, suicide, and the all-too-frequent quite stunning banality of psychopathic evil make for some interesting reading and renewed my attention in areas where the plot was beginning (in my opinion) to falter.
Paul Weiss
April 22, 2012
wo little girls are banished from a birthday party after one of them uses the "n" word. As they wander home, they come across a baby in a coach seemingly abandoned on a city street. They take the baby back to their own "secret place" and one of them kills the baby. Seven years later they are both 18 and released from juvenile detention. Not long after baby girls disappear and reappear all over the area - until one disappears and is not returned. This was probably the most chilling book by Lippman, I've read. I've always been a fan of Lippman's books. She started with her "Tess" series, but quickly branched out to a stand alone every other year. This book explores childhood - how children think, how elemental their thoughts and ideas are. We meet Alice - sweet, compliant, always wanting to be part of the gang - and Ronnie, difficult, a slower learner, wanting desperately to be loved. The adults in their lives don't seem to want to be adults at all and the results, in this case, are horrendous. "Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies....." That's what this book explores - the secrets, the lies and their consequences.
January 25, 2008
I love how Lippman toys with your perceptions as the novel winds on - just when you think you've decided how you feel about a character, she feeds you another piece of information that forces you to reevaluate. That she can do this without the new events and circumstances seeming out of place or manipulative is a testament to her skill and talent. This one would make a great book club pick for the challenges Lippman makes to the reader.
December 8, 2011
Another enjoyably twisty Lippman.
Troublemaker Ronnie and goody-goody Alice, both 11, find an unattended infant. Several days later, Olivia Barnes is found dead, and both girls are sentenced to 7 years in juvenile detention. Soon after they are released at 18, a toddler goes missing, and Olivia's mother--still angry and watchful-- believes (because of a strong resemblance between the missing girl and her own 3-year-old) that the girls must be responsible.
A second mystery runs beneath the search for the missing girl--what really happened 7 years ago? Alice has always insisted she "wasn't there" when Ronnie killed the baby, and no one has ever understood why Olivia died.
The tale unspools gradually, with ample time to observe Ronnie, Alice, Olivia's mother, Alice's mother, the police, a craven, ambitious journalist ... Then in the final pages the police find the clue that leads them to their current-day kidnapper. While in juvie, Alice gave birth to a baby, who was placed for adoption. Now that she's out, she is determined to get her child back, and her artsy, haphazard mother, in an attempt at comfort, had described the little girl as happily living in Baltimore; she based the physical description of the child on Cynthia Barnes' young girl, so Alice has been scouring the city for a 3-year-old matching that description; the unfortunate Brittany happens to be a near match.
At the same time, the reader also learns about the past. It was Alice who took the lead in the high-stakes "playing house" with Olivia, hoping to earn a cash reward and recognition. And when the baby became sick, it was Alice who insisted she should be "euthanized." She demanded that Ronnie smother the child and arranged an alibi for herself; she wanted Ronnie to be caught and sent out of her life forever. Overwhelmed by remorse, Ronnie went to Alice's mother, Helen, who believed her daughter needed to be held responsible. She told Ronnie to place a toy marked with Alice's name at the crime scene.
Sadly, Ronnie doesn't live long enough to see Alice apprehended for kidnapping Brittany --- believing that she'll never be able to escape her past, she kills herself. And Alice manages to offload the blame to the man who fathered her child and helped her abduct Brittany.
Troublemaker Ronnie and goody-goody Alice, both 11, find an unattended infant. Several days later, Olivia Barnes is found dead, and both girls are sentenced to 7 years in juvenile detention. Soon after they are released at 18, a toddler goes missing, and Olivia's mother--still angry and watchful-- believes (because of a strong resemblance between the missing girl and her own 3-year-old) that the girls must be responsible.
A second mystery runs beneath the search for the missing girl--what really happened 7 years ago? Alice has always insisted she "wasn't there" when Ronnie killed the baby, and no one has ever understood why Olivia died.
The tale unspools gradually, with ample time to observe Ronnie, Alice, Olivia's mother, Alice's mother, the police, a craven, ambitious journalist ... Then in the final pages the police find the clue that leads them to their current-day kidnapper. While in juvie, Alice gave birth to a baby, who was placed for adoption. Now that she's out, she is determined to get her child back, and her artsy, haphazard mother, in an attempt at comfort, had described the little girl as happily living in Baltimore; she based the physical description of the child on Cynthia Barnes' young girl, so Alice has been scouring the city for a 3-year-old matching that description; the unfortunate Brittany happens to be a near match.
At the same time, the reader also learns about the past. It was Alice who took the lead in the high-stakes "playing house" with Olivia, hoping to earn a cash reward and recognition. And when the baby became sick, it was Alice who insisted she should be "euthanized." She demanded that Ronnie smother the child and arranged an alibi for herself; she wanted Ronnie to be caught and sent out of her life forever. Overwhelmed by remorse, Ronnie went to Alice's mother, Helen, who believed her daughter needed to be held responsible. She told Ronnie to place a toy marked with Alice's name at the crime scene.
Sadly, Ronnie doesn't live long enough to see Alice apprehended for kidnapping Brittany --- believing that she'll never be able to escape her past, she kills herself. And Alice manages to offload the blame to the man who fathered her child and helped her abduct Brittany.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
d-n-f
August 29, 2015DNF @40%.
No, I couldn't finish this. It was painful to read. It bored me and there were so many unnecessary details in this book. I didn't like anything about this book. If I did finish it, I would probably have given it a 1 star rating. I did read a recap of the whole novel and I pretty much predicted the ending anyway.
I wouldn't recommend it and I don't think I will read anything else by Laura Lippman anytime soon.
No, I couldn't finish this. It was painful to read. It bored me and there were so many unnecessary details in this book. I didn't like anything about this book. If I did finish it, I would probably have given it a 1 star rating. I did read a recap of the whole novel and I pretty much predicted the ending anyway.
I wouldn't recommend it and I don't think I will read anything else by Laura Lippman anytime soon.
July 21, 2018
A story that the New York Times Book Review hailed as, “powerful…disturbing.”
Χμ... Όχι!
Μία ιστορία για τον θάνατο ενός βρέφους η οποία θα μπορούσε να συμπυκνωθεί σε 100 σελίδες και να διαβαστεί γρήγορα χωρίς ο αναγνώστης να χάσει το ενδιαφέρον του, που δυστυχώς αναπτύχθηκε σε 410 σελίδες μέσα στις οποίες θα διαβάσεις το υπόβαθρο και του πιο τριτοτέταρτου χαρακτήρα ο οποίος δεν έχει να προσφέρει τίποτα στην πλοκή.
Η συγγραφέας δημιουργεί την εντύπωση ότι γράφει σάλτσες για να γεμίσει τις σελίδες όπως ένας φοιτητής που δεν θέλει να δώσει λευκή κόλλα αλλά έχει πάει αδιάβαστος στην εξεταστική του Ιούνη.
Αστεράκια δύο διότι η ιδέα δεν ήταν και τόσο κακή, η εκτέλεσή της ήταν.
Χμ... Όχι!
Μία ιστορία για τον θάνατο ενός βρέφους η οποία θα μπορούσε να συμπυκνωθεί σε 100 σελίδες και να διαβαστεί γρήγορα χωρίς ο αναγνώστης να χάσει το ενδιαφέρον του, που δυστυχώς αναπτύχθηκε σε 410 σελίδες μέσα στις οποίες θα διαβάσεις το υπόβαθρο και του πιο τριτοτέταρτου χαρακτήρα ο οποίος δεν έχει να προσφέρει τίποτα στην πλοκή.
Η συγγραφέας δημιουργεί την εντύπωση ότι γράφει σάλτσες για να γεμίσει τις σελίδες όπως ένας φοιτητής που δεν θέλει να δώσει λευκή κόλλα αλλά έχει πάει αδιάβαστος στην εξεταστική του Ιούνη.
Αστεράκια δύο διότι η ιδέα δεν ήταν και τόσο κακή, η εκτέλεσή της ήταν.
April 17, 2011
One summer day, two eleven-year-old girls are "kicked out" of a pool party because of something one of them did. "Good girl" Alice Manning and "bad girl" Ronnie Fuller start off for home, but along the way, they see an unattended baby carriage. Somehow they end up taking the carriage, to "save" the child, but something goes horribly wrong. A few days later, the baby is found dead. Both girls, as juveniles, are given seven years in detention facilities. Upon their eighteenth birthdays, they are released back into the very suspicious environment of their home town.
Suddenly babies start disappearing, and then reappearing mysteriously a few hours later, until one disappears and doesn't reappear. When the mother of the dead baby begins calling, using her influence to spur the detectives on, the police turn their sights upon the eighteen-year-olds.
What follows is an intriguing journey into the characters' worlds, from the detectives working the case, like Nancy Porter, to the attorney who once represented Alice, Sharon Kerpelman. Then we peek behind the façade that is Helen Manning, Alice's mother, discovering her somewhat distorted and fascinating view of the world. Getting to know Ronnie and Alice is another trail of discovery, since each of them is "well-defended" and full of admonitions about what they should and shouldn't do or say upon their release.
Hovering over the pages of "Every Secret Thing" is the possibility of finally learning what really happened seven years ago: which of the two girls actually committed the crime and which one was duped. Or was it more complicated than that? Then there is the inevitable question of what, if anything, do the girls have to do with the missing child? And why?
I literally read continually, and even late into the night, until I finally had the answers. There were unexpected twists and turns, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, those a-ha moments came. I loved this book and can't wait to read more from this author. Five stars.
Suddenly babies start disappearing, and then reappearing mysteriously a few hours later, until one disappears and doesn't reappear. When the mother of the dead baby begins calling, using her influence to spur the detectives on, the police turn their sights upon the eighteen-year-olds.
What follows is an intriguing journey into the characters' worlds, from the detectives working the case, like Nancy Porter, to the attorney who once represented Alice, Sharon Kerpelman. Then we peek behind the façade that is Helen Manning, Alice's mother, discovering her somewhat distorted and fascinating view of the world. Getting to know Ronnie and Alice is another trail of discovery, since each of them is "well-defended" and full of admonitions about what they should and shouldn't do or say upon their release.
Hovering over the pages of "Every Secret Thing" is the possibility of finally learning what really happened seven years ago: which of the two girls actually committed the crime and which one was duped. Or was it more complicated than that? Then there is the inevitable question of what, if anything, do the girls have to do with the missing child? And why?
I literally read continually, and even late into the night, until I finally had the answers. There were unexpected twists and turns, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, those a-ha moments came. I loved this book and can't wait to read more from this author. Five stars.
June 2, 2015
I recently saw the film adaptation of this book, a wonderfully subtle socially aware crime film that suffers with a terrible postscript that nevertheless I rated as my favourite film of 2015 so far, without that movie I would never have dipped my toes in to the populist thriller waters that Laura Lippman's fiction resides in, in my mind at least. Whilst I respect her subtle way of writing a popular novel with a cast of characters that doesn't include one white male the subtlety ends there unlike with the Holofcener/Berg adaptation.
Lippman takes you on a roundabout route to a far more suitable postscript to the movie, travelling from an unforgivably shocking act in the prologue through some almost Carver-esque tableaux of every day existence for her wide cast of characters - major and incredibly minor; a tactic I applaud the use of in genre fiction, not everything has to be about driving the plot and thrills and shocking the reader, many miles can be gained through such careful and patient world building. However in this instance the tactic fails, Lippman places moments from certain major characters lives at odd intervals in her structured plotting, drawing attention to the mechanics of the craft and making it obvious that THERE IS A REASON for this brief paragraph that seemingly tells you nothing, therefore undermining the entire intended effect of shock and awe as clarity is eventually brought to proceedings.
In the grand scheme of contemporary female centric thriller novels this places down there with your generic Gillian Flynn's of the world, not a patch on your superior authors such as Megan Abbott and Sara Gran. But hey sometimes people want cheap and easy food instead of noir steak I guess.
Lippman takes you on a roundabout route to a far more suitable postscript to the movie, travelling from an unforgivably shocking act in the prologue through some almost Carver-esque tableaux of every day existence for her wide cast of characters - major and incredibly minor; a tactic I applaud the use of in genre fiction, not everything has to be about driving the plot and thrills and shocking the reader, many miles can be gained through such careful and patient world building. However in this instance the tactic fails, Lippman places moments from certain major characters lives at odd intervals in her structured plotting, drawing attention to the mechanics of the craft and making it obvious that THERE IS A REASON for this brief paragraph that seemingly tells you nothing, therefore undermining the entire intended effect of shock and awe as clarity is eventually brought to proceedings.
In the grand scheme of contemporary female centric thriller novels this places down there with your generic Gillian Flynn's of the world, not a patch on your superior authors such as Megan Abbott and Sara Gran. But hey sometimes people want cheap and easy food instead of noir steak I guess.
May 15, 2015
I am a huge fan of Laura Lippman, and I have loved the three books before this that I have read. This one was definitely the least favorite of the four. That said, it was still a very good mystery, just not quite as well written as I am used to from the eminent Ms. Lippman. A young child is taken by 2 11-year-old girls and then killed. The book jumps to seven years later, when a 2nd little girl, similar to the first is kidnapped. The 2 original kidnappers have just been released from juvenile hall, and suspicion is cast on them for the recent kidnapping. Trying to solve the present case, while revealing details of the past case, the author also deals with racial and class tensions in the city of Baltimore and its suburbs.
December 8, 2016
As an audiobook this was very slow going but then the shocking reveals at the end made it worth the investment. There are some twisted people out there. Yes, this was fiction but you know there are unbalanced people out there who would do things like kill a child and then cover it up.
November 12, 2014
totally underwhelming. there was way to much "crap" to sift though - unnecessary story lines (Mira the reporter) that dragged the story down, and bizarre details that didn't move the story forward (Do i care that Alice is wearing a pink sweater? no, i do not). the "twist" at the end wasn't what i would consider to be a twist at all, but rather a sort of rushed idea of how it should end. Overall, i felt like i didn't get a satisfactory explanation for either the historical murder or the current kidnapping. Also, the author touched several times on racial tensions and issues but also failed to hash that out, leaving the reader feeling like, once again, they were given extraneous information that didn't enrich the story or move the plot along.
I won't be rushing out to read another book by this author.
I won't be rushing out to read another book by this author.
June 7, 2011
The story line for this book was great - an old murder of a child, the 2 adolescent perpetrators finally released from prison, and now a child goes missing again in the small town. Unfortunately I was disappointed by the speed of the book and missed any connection with the characters.
To me, the book felt slow to build characters out, and I never really felt anything towards them, whether good or bad. It didn't matter to me what happened to either of the two girls or anyone else at the end. The ending felt rushed as if the author had to squeeze in what finally happens as she ran up against her deadline to get the book finished.
All in all, not a bad book, but not one I liked all that much.
To me, the book felt slow to build characters out, and I never really felt anything towards them, whether good or bad. It didn't matter to me what happened to either of the two girls or anyone else at the end. The ending felt rushed as if the author had to squeeze in what finally happens as she ran up against her deadline to get the book finished.
All in all, not a bad book, but not one I liked all that much.
January 1, 2014
This was my first Laura Lippman book, and even though I only gave it a rating of 2 stars, I would still give another book a chance. This was just ok, though. Writing was good but I thought there was a lot of unnecessary information about some of the characters, which put me off a little.
ditched
June 26, 2015I made it 128 pages. This book was boring, characters uninteresting and unlikable.
February 13, 2017
Початок цього роману цілком симпатичний, бо хто ж із нас не любить напряжних психологічних трилерів про дитячу жорстокість? Зав'язка така: двоє одинадцятирічних дівчаток викрадають немовля (бо воно було в ту мить саме, тож взяли, коротше, ляльку погратися, виправдовуючись тим, що про дитину все одно, мовляв, не дбають), потім повертати його вже стрьомно, потім все закінчується смертю немовляти. Промотуємо на сім років уперед: дівчата відбули свій термін ув'язнення й виходять на свободу, і тоді в їхньому районі знову зникає дитина. Чи пов'язані вони і з цією справою?
На жаль, жвавенька зав'язка розпадається на надлишкову множинність персонажів (адвокатка однієї з дівчат, слідчий, журналістка, і тд, і тп) - кожен персонаж окремо цілком нормальний, але всього разом забагато, я детективи читаю не для широкої суспільної панорами, не знаю, як ви.
А потім стається раптовий, як пиздець, фінал, який взагалі на голову не налазить, бо зав'язаний виключно на замовчуванні кількох ключових фактів. Я такого добра не люблю.
Коротше, можна читати, можна не читати, краще не читати.
На жаль, жвавенька зав'язка розпадається на надлишкову множинність персонажів (адвокатка однієї з дівчат, слідчий, журналістка, і тд, і тп) - кожен персонаж окремо цілком нормальний, але всього разом забагато, я детективи читаю не для широкої суспільної панорами, не знаю, як ви.
А потім стається раптовий, як пиздець, фінал, який взагалі на голову не налазить, бо зав'язаний виключно на замовчуванні кількох ключових фактів. Я такого добра не люблю.
Коротше, можна читати, можна не читати, краще не читати.
April 20, 2015
I was really in the mood for a mystery, and the synopsis of this one really appealed to me.
This book is about two girls, Ronnie and Alice, who committed an unspeakable crime when they were 11 years old. Their actions resulted in the death of a toddler and they were both sentenced to time in juvie. Seven years have passed and they have been released from their respective juvenile detention centers at the start of the novel. A short time later, a 3-year-old girl goes missing.
To say much more would give away too much. This is definitely a book that you wouldn't want to know very much about before reading it for yourself. The novel took a few surprising twists and turns, but there were no real mind-blowing shockers.
I don't have an issue with police procedural shows, movies, or books. I really enjoyed those aspects of this book. But the character development, even with the detectives, seemed forced to me. None of the characters really had a whole lot of depth or originality, they were all fairly one-dimensional. There were also several auxiliary characters that I didn't find to be completely necessary. I thought it would have been better had the book just followed the detectives, Alice, and Ronnie. The author seemed to have spread herself too thin trying to incorporate all of the various characters with their various storylines. It just seemed like kind of a mess at times.
As I said, I was surprised; which is what I want from a mystery novel. I would prefer to have my mind blown by the author, but that isn't always the case.
This book is about two girls, Ronnie and Alice, who committed an unspeakable crime when they were 11 years old. Their actions resulted in the death of a toddler and they were both sentenced to time in juvie. Seven years have passed and they have been released from their respective juvenile detention centers at the start of the novel. A short time later, a 3-year-old girl goes missing.
To say much more would give away too much. This is definitely a book that you wouldn't want to know very much about before reading it for yourself. The novel took a few surprising twists and turns, but there were no real mind-blowing shockers.
I don't have an issue with police procedural shows, movies, or books. I really enjoyed those aspects of this book. But the character development, even with the detectives, seemed forced to me. None of the characters really had a whole lot of depth or originality, they were all fairly one-dimensional. There were also several auxiliary characters that I didn't find to be completely necessary. I thought it would have been better had the book just followed the detectives, Alice, and Ronnie. The author seemed to have spread herself too thin trying to incorporate all of the various characters with their various storylines. It just seemed like kind of a mess at times.
As I said, I was surprised; which is what I want from a mystery novel. I would prefer to have my mind blown by the author, but that isn't always the case.
June 2, 2010
Anyway, Laura Lippman, aside from writing the Tess Monaghan series, writes standalone crime novels. Good ones. More "novels about crime" than "crime novels," because they're not just straight police procedurals (not that there's anything wrong with that). They contain realistic, fully developed characters as well as incredibly well constructed plots. "Every Secret Thing" is about two girls who get out of juvie after spending seven years there for killing a baby when they were 11 -- what can they do with their lives? Can they move forward? It's about two cops investigating the disappearance of another child right after these two have gotten out. It's about the mother of the baby who was killed, how her life has been warped by that grief. It's about the mother of one of the girls, an unconventional woman who's lived by her own rules. It's about the public defender of one of the girls trying not to let her get railroaded a second time. And it's about a young reporter trying to make good with a big story no one else has. These multiple threads converge; Lippman skillfully pulls it all together and keeps the pages turning. But the characters aren't types or flat -- they have their own joys and their own troubles; even secondary characters get backstory and depth. And class and race, so often issues overlying or underlying crime, aren't skirted but taken in full context. The result is a complex, compelling novel.
February 22, 2013
Shocking and well put together would best describe Every Secret Thing. Once I started I could not put it down.
When Alice and Ronnie were 11 years old, a baby was taken from a front porch and four days later that baby was found dead. Seven years have past and the girls are released from their juvenile facilities and are meant to get on with their lives, but not everyone wants that for them and not everything is quiet what it appears. Then another little girl is taken and the quick assumption is they have done it again, but have they and what really happened 7 years ago may not be what anyone thinks.
I really enjoyed the way Lippman gave up details of both kidnappings and what had happened in the ensuing years with the perfect pacing. She kept the suspense up until the very end and made you believe in the characters, no one was perfect and no one was entirely evil, most of them were simply thrust into a situation no one would ever what to find themselves in. And when the conclusion arrived I was stunned but the final revelations.
When Alice and Ronnie were 11 years old, a baby was taken from a front porch and four days later that baby was found dead. Seven years have past and the girls are released from their juvenile facilities and are meant to get on with their lives, but not everyone wants that for them and not everything is quiet what it appears. Then another little girl is taken and the quick assumption is they have done it again, but have they and what really happened 7 years ago may not be what anyone thinks.
I really enjoyed the way Lippman gave up details of both kidnappings and what had happened in the ensuing years with the perfect pacing. She kept the suspense up until the very end and made you believe in the characters, no one was perfect and no one was entirely evil, most of them were simply thrust into a situation no one would ever what to find themselves in. And when the conclusion arrived I was stunned but the final revelations.
July 10, 2016
This was Laura Lippman’s first stand-alone mystery, and it didn’t disappoint. It’s a slow-building, sneaky mystery. We know from the start that something terrible happens to baby Olivia Barnes and that Alice and Ronnie were responsible, but the details leak out slowly, drip by drip. The best part of the book is that you’re never quite sure whose side you should be on. Is Alice as innocent as she seemed? Is Ronnie the sociopath she first seemed to be? What did Alice’s mother have to do with it? Why is the public defender so invested? Even the victim’s mother, Cynthia Barnes, isn’t particularly likeable. In fact, she’s quite bitchy throughout most of the book. You want to excuse her behavior, but is there a point where enough is enough?
There are some quite surprising twists in the story, and that’s what makes it extra special for me. It’s hard for me to find a book with a plot that surprises me. This just cements Lippman’s place on my "Damn, She’s Good" list.
There are some quite surprising twists in the story, and that’s what makes it extra special for me. It’s hard for me to find a book with a plot that surprises me. This just cements Lippman’s place on my "Damn, She’s Good" list.
October 11, 2015
I can't believe it took me so long to read something by Laura Lippmann. Reading many of the other reviews of this novel, you either love her writing or hate the characters. I think her ability to drive a plot and write great characters (none of which are likable - and I honestly didn't care - her pacing is that good) is phenomenal. I couldn't put it down.
October 12, 2023
Slow. Fatphobic & racist language. No thanks.
July 22, 2018
I am new to Laura Lippman and I'm finding her addictive. Even the kinds of stories and characters that I would bet would not interest me end up pulling me into a vortex and I don't fall out of the waterspout till the book is over and all the secrets revealed.
This offering is about two eleven year old girls who find an unattended baby and hide it in the woods. When the child is found dead they both serve 7 years in juvenile facilities. They emerge at eighteen much changed and wondering if they can start over in this town. They are advised not to see each other. And then another baby goes missing.
Lippman packs a lot of personalities in 388 pages. The cop, no longer a rookie, who found the first baby. The lawyer who tried to help the girls. The young newspaper reporter who'll do anything to use the story of the released girls to get ahead at the paper. The mother of the first kidnapped baby, who had another child, but will never forgive or forget, and will do her best to have vengeance. The girls and their families, struggling to know and endure each other again.
I will definitely be reading more of this writer. Her characters are alternately lovable and chilling, her women believable and duplicitous. Sometimes psychological terror is the best.
This offering is about two eleven year old girls who find an unattended baby and hide it in the woods. When the child is found dead they both serve 7 years in juvenile facilities. They emerge at eighteen much changed and wondering if they can start over in this town. They are advised not to see each other. And then another baby goes missing.
Lippman packs a lot of personalities in 388 pages. The cop, no longer a rookie, who found the first baby. The lawyer who tried to help the girls. The young newspaper reporter who'll do anything to use the story of the released girls to get ahead at the paper. The mother of the first kidnapped baby, who had another child, but will never forgive or forget, and will do her best to have vengeance. The girls and their families, struggling to know and endure each other again.
I will definitely be reading more of this writer. Her characters are alternately lovable and chilling, her women believable and duplicitous. Sometimes psychological terror is the best.
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