The Secrets We Hide by Karin Slaughter (HarperCollins UK)

Karin Slaughter knows how to write a crime scene that sticks. The Secrets We Hide takes us to North Falls, a place where a double shooting in a kitchen is just the start of a very long, very dark list of revelations. Emmy Clifton is a solid detective who doesn't have time for the town's small talk or their assumptions. The story moves from a bloody kitchen floor to the rotting core of a family that everyone thought they knew.

The pacing is a bit of a slog at first because of a heavy dose of family history and name-dropping. But once the air clears, the characters actually start to breathe. The writing skips the decorative filler and focuses on the reality of a town built on lies.

"The hardest thing to see is the person standing right in front of you when you’ve already decided who they are."

Read this if you want a mystery with some psychological weight and zero sugarcoating. Skip it if you aren't in the mood for a dense beginning. This is for the readers who know that "quiet" is just another word for "well-hidden."

4/5

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• A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
• The Lost Night" by Andrea Bartz