Review of The Secrets We Hide (North Falls #2) by Karin Slaughter

The Secrets We Hide offers what is for me the perfect blend of character development, layered interpersonal issues, and mystery twists and turns that never feel convoluted, plus other favorite Bossy elements: a small-town setting, a family legacy of police work, and a condensed, healthily paced timeline from the story's beginning to end. I was hooked on this novel.

I love a story driven by a female investigator main protagonist, and in book one of this small-town mystery series, We Are All Guilty Here, officer Emmy Clifton came into her own. The situation at hand quickly became dark and twisted, and Slaughter built tension without red herrings or manipulation.

In book two, now-Sheriff Emmy and her sister, ex-federal agent Jude Archer, respond to gunshots nearby and find a tragedy: local former cop Allison Vickery has been shot dead in her kitchen, and Allison's daughter has been shot and left for dead upstairs.

Slaughter is skilled at reviewing the back story for Emmy and Jude for book two; their father, North Falls's longtime sheriff, died in book one, and their mother, who had long suffered from dementia, has recently passed away. But Emmy had been shouldering the caregiving, and Jude returns to town to Emmy's powerful resentment and anger. I loved the connection between these two strong women, their bickering, and, utimately, their momentary vulnerability.

Jude is keeping personal secrets that would rock Emmy's world, but before she can confess to Emmy, the sisters must cope with abruptly leveled charges that their father was a crooked cop, that he made evidence in a drug bust disappear, and that much of what they knew to be true about the much-idolized man (at least on Emmy's part) is lies. Meanwhile Jude is coming to terms with the implications of her history in this town, and she's regretting some of her past choices that kept her away from Emmy.

Some of the crime scene details were supremely gory, and the facts surrounding Allison's death turn out to be wholly tragic. Jude gets to use her FBI power and her general savviness to help move the case along, and Emmy ultimately, satisfyingly, asserts her leadership over her band of small-town cops--only some of whom are loyal to her when the novel begins.

Most of the men in the story are misogynistic and easy to detest, with a few key exceptions. Domestic violence is pervasive and key to the story in various ways. (Jude's meeting with a man at the end of the book was fascinating and chilling in its implications.)

I was hooked on this story. Slaughter offers her signature layered mystery, buoyed by character depth and interpersonal complications. This is the perfect mix of character development and personal lives and non-manipulative mystery twists.

I listened to this novel as an audiobook through Libby and my public library.

More Books to Explore

The first title in the North Falls series is We Are All Guilty Here.

Please also check out these other Bossy mystery reviews and book lists.