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    Every Secret Thing
    Every Secret Thing
    Every Secret Thing
    Audiobook12 hours

    Every Secret Thing

    Written by Laura Lippman

    Narrated by Celeste Ciulla

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    One of mystery writing's most acclaimed novelists for her brilliant Tess Monaghan series, Laura Lippman won the Anthony and Barry Awards for this riveting stand-alone. Kicked out of a birthday party, 11-year-olds Alice and Ronnie walk home and encounter a baby left in a carriage. Their earnest desire to do a good deed ends tragically, however, and seven years later they are released from "kid prison" to start their lives anew..

    Editor's Note

    Innocence twisted…

    Lippman’s first foray into standalone novels is a deftly crafted, twisty tale searching for innocence after a senseless murder where two minors are convicted of killing a baby. Lovingly written & darkly captivating.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateDec 11, 2009
    ISBN9781440775369
    Author

    Laura Lippman

    Since 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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    Reviews for Every Secret Thing

    3.5/5

    27 ratings19 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I don't think I liked how this ended. Lots of twists in the plot, but I just didn't care for the ending.
    • 2/5
      I can’t say my first experience with author, Laura Lippman was a positive one. I really didn’t enjoy Every Secret Thing. I thought the plot jumped around to much. There seemed to be far to many unnecessary story-lines. So many times well reading the book I was thinking. O.k. Where is Ms. Lippman going with this? Also I kept thinking. Can you please get to the point. Pages and pages of descriptions and pointless chatter between characters that didn’t really have a part in the story. I won’t give up on Ms. Lippman totally. I’ll read a few more of her books. Hopefully she has something else worth-while reading.
    • 3/5
      The plot to this suspense-thriller suffers from a “twist” ending that is neither adequately built up to or remotely surprising. The characters are one-dimensional and ultimately uninteresting as well. Snore.
    • 3/5
      Synopsis: Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller, two 11-year-old Baltimore girls, were on their way home from a birthday party when their lives were changed forever. The girls spot a child, unattended in a baby carriage. Deciding to help, the girls take the baby and try to care for it. But the baby dies, and Alice and Ronnie are sent away for 7 years.At the age of 18, the two girls are released and instructed to have no contact with one another. Each girl is to try to build a new life for herself. But when babies start to disappear in situations startlingly similar to Alice and Ronnie's crime, people begin to wonder whether the two girls should have been released and what really happened to the baby the girls were charged with murdering.Review: The premise of this novel is very intriguing. Two 11-year-old girls kill an infant, serve time in jail, are released, and then similar crimes begin to occur. I think, especially given the unfortunate events that occur in our society, children committing murder does hold a bit of fascination for the reader.With that being said, I wasn't blown away by this novel. I enjoyed it, particularly the first half of the novel, but it ended up being one of those books that are more exciting in the dust jacket description than in execution.The characters were well written. The plot was good. The writing style was very easy to fall into. This book was also a very quick read. There was just something lacking for me, though. It was missing that extra bit of oomph that would have pushed me from lukewarm to on fire.If you are looking for a decent mystery novel with an unusual plot, definitely check this book out. I wouldn't steer anyone away from this book, but I might not guide them toward it either.
    • 3/5
      Sure, there aren't many characters to like in this novel, but I'm not so simple as to not be able to enjoy and appreciate what an author does because there are no sunshine and puppies. If you want a nice little novel about people doing nice little things (yawn) look elsewhere. If you aren't afraid the the dark side of human nature and can enjoy a novel about people you wouldn't necessarily want over for dinner, you could do worse than this book. I found it an interesting look into what women are capable of. So often we want to deny women the ability to be vicious or dangerous, but this novel puts them on equal footing with men in those departments. Overall I enjoyed the story about these fractured people and how their lives intersected. Helen disturbed me the most and I think the narrator did a great job with her character. Her low self-esteem manifested itself in such bizarre ways that seemed to contradict and then override any maternal instinct she might have posessed. Alice, her daughter, was drawn a bit heavy-handed to be completely believable and I wasn't surprised to see her true self emerge in the end. Ronnie, while not always a sympathetic character, earned those feelings in the end, at least from me. Cynthia was a woman driven by her dark side just as much as Helen was. Nancy wasn't so clearly drawn as the rest. She kept harping on her former need for attention, but it didn't really come through since we were beyond its time frame. While it's not her best work, I think Lippman wrote an unusual story well.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      It was a good read. Her books usually are. I didn't agree with ending, though. Alice got away with everything while Ronnie suffered.
    • 4/5
      Every Secret Thing is a standalone mystery that is not part of the Tess Monaghan detective series. This dark story from Lippman was inspired by a real crime in which two ten-year-old boys killed a three-year-old boy. In Every Secret Thing, the perpetrators are two eleven-year-old lower class white girls, Alice and Ronnie, and the victim is a nine-month-old baby named Olivia from an upper class black family. Thus, Lippman explores not only the crime and the nature of the juvenile justice system, but also the intersection of race and class in Baltimore County.Alice and Ronnie are each automatically released from prison at age eighteen, and simultaneously, a rash of child abductions occur. Most of the children reappear shortly after they are taken, until Maveen Little’s three-year-old girl is taken, and she doesn’t return.Evaluation: Nothing is as straightforward as it seems in this story. Even the twists don’t resolve neatly; the book is in fact more like “real life” than one might want! Interestingly, almost all the characters are female. There is no romance to lighten the mood, nor actually much of anything that lightens the mood. This is a good book, but one that had me longing to go back to the brighter life of Tess Monaghan.Note: This book won both the Anthony Award (for mystery novels) and the Barry Award (for crime novels) in 2004.
    • 4/5
      Two eleven-year-old girls kidnap what they believe to be an abandoned baby. A few days later the baby is found dead. Fast forward seven years as the two girls are released from prison. Then other children start disappearing. Alice and Ronnie are the two girls. As the reader gets inside each of their heads, it is obvious they have some serious problems. They are not so much friends as co-dependents. Alice appears to be the one easily manipulated but the twist comes in the end as Detective Nancy Porter works these disturbing cases. The most interesting character is the mother of the baby who died seven years ago. Her vengeance makes the reader almost believe she is the one behind the kidnappings just so she can get the two girls blamed and back into prison. Seven years, in her mind, wasn’t enough for killing her baby. She had wanted them tried as adults but the prosecutor had struck a deal. Her stalking of the two girls is pretty eerie but understandable.
    • 4/5
      Summary: Two eleven year old girls are convicted after they kidnap the baby girl of a prominent public official. Seven years later, they are released and babies start disappearing again.The Take-Away: I really thought that this would be tough to read, but the violence stayed off the pages. It was referred to, but never in detail. In fact, the lack of detail added to the suspense of the story. Who really was the murderer? Was it the dutiful Alice Manning or the unpredictable Ronnie Fuller? Each girl blamed the other, but the true story doesn't come out until the end of the novel.Lippman is better known for her Tess Monaghan. I'm not familiar with them but would pick them up. The writing in this one was so fab that the others are probably good too.Recommendation: If the subject matter seems too tough, try a different title. This author is worth it.
    • 3/5
      This was the first book I've read by this author. She writes the Tess Monaghan mystery series, but this title is a standalone. It's well written and in some ways reminded me of Minette Walters with the way it delved into characters, offering insights from the past to explain the present. At its heart, it's the story of how the past can come back to haunt the present and the powerless of some people to change things for the better.Alice and Ronnie were eleven years old when they happened across a baby in a stroller in front of a house. Convinced the baby had been abandoned, they took her, and were blamed for Olivia Barnes' death. Now, 7 years later, they've been released from "kid prison" to start their lives over. But when another child disappears, suspicion falls on the two young women.But it's not just Alice and Ronnie's lives that have been altered. There is the detective who, as a police cadet enlisted in the search for Olivia Barnes, found the baby's body and is now one of the investigators on the current missing child case. There is also Alice's public defender lawyer who still thinks Alice got a raw deal, and Alice's mother, who seems to have perfected her own brand of denial. And finally, there is Olivia's mother. Cynthia Barnes never got over her baby's death, and her need for vengeance propels much of the action and the inevitability of the conclusion.I enjoyed the book a lot, but felt at times, a bit manipulated. Lippman is careful to not tell us any detail before she's ready for us to know it. Yet by the end of the book, I felt as if I knew each character intimately and that's due to Lippman's engrossing, engaging prose. If you like a suspenseful page turner, you'll likely find it here.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. Lippman's writing is engrossing from the first word making this book difficult to put down. I did sort of guess the ending, but it is sort of obvious. What I didn't see were the small details, and that's what really makes this book.

      I'm really hoping that Lippman has a few more books for me to add to my to read list. I would definitely recommend this to someone who likes a bit of a crime thriller, but a crime thriller with a bit of a twist!
    • 1/5
      I couldn't finish reading this sick sensationalist murder tale.A waste of time better spent reading almost anything else.Laura Lippman makes this stuff up, she must be a real charm to live with. She should purge her soul by researching and writing a novel about nice people doing nice things.
    • 4/5
      Two eleven year old girls are asked to leave a birthday party after one of them gets angry and accidentally hits the birthday girl’s mother. They are allowed to leave without a ride home and without any adult supervision. On their way home, they spot a baby in a carriage, unsupervised, outside the closed door of a house. The girls take the baby and later say that they took the baby to protect it and keep it safe. The problem is that the baby is dead. Did one of the girls kill it, or both, or did it die naturally of SIDS? Only the girls know the truth and they blame each other. Seven years later, babies are going missing again. Is it one or both of the girls, just recently home from juvenile detention, as the mother of the deceased baby thinks, or is it someone else?Every Secret Thing is a really good mystery with lots of twists. Some of the twists I anticipated in advance, but others took me by surprise. It is told through a variety of the characters’ views, sometimes switching from one to another too fast for my taste, but it does add more detail to the story. I hate to say it, but I didn’t really like any of the characters in Every Secret Thing, but I’m not sure Lippman wants the reader to like them. I did kind of like the detective, Nancy, but she wasn’t really well-developed enough to gain much investment from me. I didn’t trust either of the two girls, and I really didn’t like the mother of the baby that was killed in the beginning. She just seemed self-important, judgmental, and bossy. Alice’s mother seemed odd, and I wasn’t sure what to think about Alice’s lawyer, but I didn’t really like her either. The reporter obviously didn’t care about anyone other than herself and I never understood what had caused her to become stuck at such a low-level position to begin with. Despite the character issues, Every Secret Thing keeps you guessing, making you question what you think you already know. It had me racing to the end to find out if my suspicions were accurate or not. It was a thrilling ride and I was itching to know what the truth really was.I recommend this one, with just a little complaint that the character POV change was too abrupt at times.
    • 4/5
      Synopsis: Two young girls, Alice and Ronnie, are sent home from a birthday party for misbehaving. On their way they discover a baby in a baby carriage sitting outside a house. No one is around so they rescue her and hide her. When the baby is found she is dead. Both girls are sentenced to 7 years in a correctional facility. Once they are out, at age 18 years, they return to their homes. Ronnie gets a job and tries to pick up her life. Alice wanders the streets, ostensibly to lose weight. Another child is missing and both young women are suspected. Detective Nancy is put on the case. She thinks something was wrong with the first case and that its connected to the this one. The mother of the fist child is sending hints to the police and to the newspapers to move the case along. Nancy must determine if this woman has an ulterior motive.Review: This was a good story but was draggy in parts. It was a nice change from Tess books.
    • 5/5
      This was a wonderful book! This was my first book to read by this author. I was prompted to read this because it won the Anthony Award for 2004, and I am always interested in reading any books that have won this literary award. It was a page turner to the very end.
    • 2/5
      I read this book a couple years ago after seeing the excerpt in the back of the book I was reading. I anticipated the book, read it, and was thoroghly disappointed. It wasn't just that the characters were horrible people, it was the writing itself. There wasn't much to recommend it, and the story, since it wasn't well written, dragged forever for me. This is a book that lasted probably a month for me (really unheard of when it comes to me and reading), but I just couldn't get into it. When I was done I just let out a relieved sigh. Yeah, I could have set it asside, but as I've mentioned before, it was always really hard for me not to finish a book once I start it. Now I'm finding that it's ok...lifes too short to stick with the bad ones.
    • 1/5
      In this novel Lippman makes everything work for her. Even if this means completely altering her characters to better fit the predictable plot. The story has promise; two young girls who are accused of kidnapping a baby, that eventually leads to the infant's untimely death (sick, yes, I know, but plot-worthy). I was as confused as the two girls in this story by the time I finished it, not by the plot, but on who was who because their personas changed as quickly as a woman's emotions going through menopause. One word: bleh.
    • 3/5
      This was better-written than I expected a mass-market paperback to be. And it had a good twist at the end. However, I disliked the "born bad" explanation for the murder; that is just as "easy" and stereotypical as blaming the girl from the tough home.