Books On Tour (Review): I Know Your Secret by Ruth Heald

Twisted doesn’t even being to describe this book. It’s part cat and mouse, part psychological thriller, part domestic drama, and all fantastic. For once, the tag line absolutely, 100% fits!

The author does a great job of laying out the background to set everything up. The intent of the two main characters (Beth and Danielle) are made clear and the character lines are clearly drawn.

Or are they?

Told in alternating points of view between the two, the plot moves along crisply. Instead of going back over a singular event from each point of view, the author uses the two different perspectives to propel the story. It’s effective and made for more interesting reading.

It also allowed the author to drop a bombshell and then switch characters, often leaving me speechless and wanting to get back to that perspective. Fortunately, the chapters are quite short, which also swiftly moves the story.

The constant and quick switches back and forth also kept me off balance. Every time I thought I had a handle on what was really going on, something else would happen that would make me question what I thought I knew. I enjoyed not being able to predict what would happen next (as sometimes happens).

I don’t do spoilers. I can’t stand them. With a plot this intricate, it would be difficult to say anything specific without potentially giving something away. Suffice to say that little things that are innocuous probably aren’t and what appears to be important may not be.

Nothing is as it seems.

The set up takes a while, but once you reach roughly halfway, the action and revelations pick up enormous speed and it’s a breathless race to the finish with all of the secrets being revealed in rapid-fire succession. If ever there was a book that was aptly described as a roller coaster ride this is the one.

Seriously, don’t miss it.

Author Bio:
Ruth Heald is a psychological thriller writer from a suburban Buckinghamshire town. She studied Economics at Oxford and then worked in an eclectic mix of sectors from nuclear decommissioning to management consulting.

Seeking a more creative environment, she found a role at the BBC and worked there for nine years before leaving to write full time. Ruth is fascinated by psychology and finding out what drives people to violence, destruction and revenge. She’s married with one daughter and her novels explore our greatest fears in otherwise ordinary, domestic lives.