Book Review: Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier

My Rating: 3.5⭐

Over a year ago, a Christmas shopping trip to Pike Place Market in Seattle ends in a nightmare for Marin Machado when her four-year-old son Sebastian disappears without a trace. Video footage indicates Sebastian was taken by someone dressed as Santa Claus but without any other leads/probable suspects the police have been unsuccessful in their search for the little boy. Marin blames herself for letting go of her son’s hand to attend to a call from former college boyfriend/ current close friend Sal. Marin and her husband Derek are a power couple- both successful and wealthy, but losing their son fractures their marriage with Marin falling into depression and seeking help from a therapist and a support group after a failed suicide attempt, while Derek deals with his grief differently. Unbeknownst to Derek, Marin has hired a private investigator to help find out what happened to Sebastian. It comes as a sad shock to Marin when her investigator informs her that her husband is having an affair with aspiring artist/furniture designer twenty-four-year-old McKenzie “Kenzie” Li, who has a penchant for older married men from whom she demands huge sums of money in exchange for her silence once they decide to end the affair.  Marin is not willing to lose her husband and diligently starts stalking her husband's mistress – both online and even showing up at the café where she works. Funnily enough, Kenzie knows exactly who Marin is when she walks into the café but pretends not to recognize her. In a moment of weakness, Marin confides in Sal who tells her about a man, a “fixer” who could “help” take care of her problem.

Does Marin know what she is getting into? How far will Marin go to save her marriage? What happened to Sebastian? Will Marin ever get to know the truth behind her son’s disappearance? Do the people she trusts truly have her best interests at heart?

Jennifer Hiller’s Little Secrets is a well-paced, engrossing read, with a cast of equally unlikeable characters and enough suspense to keep you holding on till the very last page. Jennifer Hillier definitely knows how to create complicated characters and build suspense in a novel. The narrative flows seamlessly and is full of twists and turns and red herrings that make for an exciting read. While the twists were good, I should mention that a few of them felt contrived. Though I guessed the final reveal midway through the story which did dampen the excitement for me a bit, I was surprised more than once as the story progressed.

Overall, while I did like Little Secrets, I did not love it as much as I did Jar of Hearts, which was the first Jennifer Hiller novel that I had read.