3 STARS"Along the banks of the Ohio River, the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, has been the home of quiet pleasures and safety for Adrienne Reynolds and her fourteen-year-old daughter Skye since the death of Adrienne's husband four years ago. Their sense of safety is shattered, however, when Adrienne and Skye find the body of one of Adrienne's best friends, Julianna, in a once-elegant, now abandoned hotel named La Belle Riviere. La Belle has a long history of misfortunes, but Julianna's murder is the most gruesome.Evidence indicates Julianna that had a secret lover whom she met regularly in the hotel, and who could have been with her in her final moments. The only person who knows this lover's identity is the hotel caretaker, Claude Duncan. But Claude is quickly silenced-drugged and burned to death in his small cottage on the grounds of La Belle the night after Julianna's death. One by one, people close to Adrienne are brutally murdered, and it looks as though she and Skye are the next targets of a fierce killer with a shocking secret." (From Amazon)A fair romantic suspense novel.
I enjoy Carlene Thompson's books even she usually takes a bit setting up the story and characters at the beginning. They are usually suspenseful with a surprise or two. This one had quite a few twists and turns. The murderer did surprise me on this one. Whenever I thought I had it figured out, I was lead down another path with new clues. I connected with Adrienne and wanted her out of harms way. Ms. Thompson kept me guessing until the final, climatic revelation. Lovers of intelligent murder mysteries will want to pick up Share No Secrets.
What do You think about Share No Secrets (2005)?
Despite a somewhat slow start, Share No Secrets is a mystery novel about a small town in West Virginia that is suffering from a series of murders. The lovely Julianna Brent is murdered in the town's historic old hotel and childhood best friend Adrienne Reynolds spends the duration of the book trying to solve Julianna's murder, resolve her love life, raise her teenage daughter Skye and avoid becoming a murder victim herself! Having only recently become a reader of Ms. Thompson's, I have to admit that she continues to entertain. The story keeps you guessing and the big reveal at the end was a surprise. When I can read a mystery and not have everything figured out halfway through, I am happy. So, in my opinion, Ms. Thompson delivers. My only complaint? The fact that some of the characters, knowing full well that there is an unidentified killer on the loose, continually go out alone in the dark or leave themseleves obviously vulnerable to the unknown killer in some other fashion. But maybe this is just standard character behavior for this type of genre. All in all, a good read!
—Lori
