What do You think about A Secret Rage (1985)?
I hadn't realized how much I'd missed Charlaine Harris' voice until my pusher (aka Mother) added this little book to the stack of others she sent back with me at the end of my last visit with her. The woman is just wicked funny. Ms Harris, I mean; although Mother is no slouch in the sly humor department her own self. That Ms Harris was able to be funny while dealing with incredibly serious material is a credit to her as a writer, all the more so because this book was written what seems like fairly early in her career. I didn't rate the book higher because the ending seemed very rush/slapped together, like there were three chapters that needed to be fleshed out between the existing 12 and 13. I was delighted to find out how many . . .umm, let's call them "journeyman mysteries" she has written, and plan to eventually read all of them.
—Kristi Lamont
Nickie Callahan can handle herself. But after a successful- but brief- career as a model in New York city, she's looking forward to letting down her guard in the sleepy college town of Knolls, Tennessee. Living with her best friend, she plans on carving out a new future for herself by studying to be a writer. But the women of Knolls are not safe. And as Nickie gets swept up in a string of brutally violent crimes, she must take matters of justice into her own hands... This is the second time I read this book. I don't think it will be the last time I reread this book either. I'm still as horrified and shaken as I was the first time I closed the last page on this book. Charlaine Harris captures "The Southerness" so much that its truly tangible. I can hear the accents, watch the mannerisms, and its amazing! I read a review that commented that its a bit dry, and maybe if the Sookie Stackhouse books are more vivacious, I could see that, but this is the first book I read for Charlaine Harris. Its savage, brutal, vital, and important. This book deserves to be considered a true piece of Literature.
—Shahd Mt.
This standalone novel by an author famous for vampire novels is a powerful, fascinating, yet shocking portrayal of one woman, a strong, powerful, successful woman, and how she deals with rape. Nickie Callahan was a successful model in New York, when at the old age of 27, she was informed that she was too old and her career was over. A fateful phone call while she is reviewing her options brings her to little Knolls, Tennessee, and a deep south experience which only someone who lived it can portray accurately, which Ms Harris does. Nickie gets marginally involved in the town – her roommate / hostess is popular and powerful, and involved in everything, so Nickie meets many of the 'best' people. Some of the shocking parts of this story were in the not-so-hidden ways that the 'best' people dealt with race – and rape. A young girl was raped at the college where Nickie enrolls, in an attempt to complete her delayed education. Then Nickie herself is raped, and we see that Harris, a rape survivor herself, is able to put into writing not the graphic details, but the feelings, the determination, the rage, that such a desecration inflames. Working with another victim, Nickie begins to piece together the facts, some hidden, and some dismissed by the police as irrelevant. It’s a known fact that many times people wonder what the victim did to get herself (or sometimes himself) raped, and that is brought into the story as well. Together, the women begin a list of possibles, in an attempt to track down the serial rapist. In addition to the search for the perpetrator, we see Nickie begin to pull herself together, as she refuses to accept the rape as her fault, or as something she could have avoided. Masterfully done, and I recommend this to rape counselors as a story of someone who refuses to define themselves as a victim, showing how to react to those who gossip and stare and cast blame where it doesn't belong.
—Doris
