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    The Darkest Secret: A Novel
    The Darkest Secret: A Novel
    The Darkest Secret: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Darkest Secret: A Novel

    Written by Alex Marwood

    Narrated by Beverley A. Crick

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Real estate mogul Sean Jackson is throwing himself a splashy fiftieth birthday party, but trouble starts almost immediately: His ex-wife has sent his teenage daughters to the party without telling him; his current wife has fired the nanny; and he's finding it difficult to sneak away to his mistress. Then something truly terrible happens: one of his three-year-old twins goes missing. No trace of her is ever found. The attendees of the party, nicknamed the Jackson Associates by the press, become infamous overnight.
    Twelve years later, Sean is dead. The Jackson Associates assemble for the funeral, together for the first time since that fateful weekend. Soon the barbed comments and accusations are flying. By the end of the weekend, one will be dead. And one of Sean's daughters will make a shocking discovery.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 30, 2016
    ISBN9781515976776
    The Darkest Secret: A Novel
    Author

    Alex Marwood

    Alex Marwood is the pseudonym of a former journalist who has worked extensively in the British press. She is the author of the word-of-mouth sensation The Wicked Girls, which won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original; The Killer Next Door, which won a Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel; The Darkest Secret; and The Poison Garden. Her novels have been short-listed for numerous crime writing awards and been optioned for the screen. She lives in south London.

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    Reviews for The Darkest Secret

    3.5/5

    98 ratings9 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This is the second book by Alex Marwood that I have read. Great mystery. Most of the characters were priviledged, upper class and totally unlikeable. Not sure the ending satisfied me. Justice was not done.
    • 3/5
      This is the story of a missing 3 year old twin Coco. She goes missing from her families holiday home in Sandbanks on Bank Holiday Weekend in 2004. The book jumps back and forth from then to present day. Sean and Claire are hosting the weekend its Sean's 50th birthday party along with the twins Coco and Ruby. Sean's older daughters India and Milla are visiting, along with 2 other couples their children and a lady called Linda. Sean and Claire's marriage is coming to an end. Claire decides to run off back to London.Sean likes Linda an interior designer he also likes one of his friends daughter Simone. They have no baby sitter so they decide to drug the children a little bit so they sleep. This isn't a good idea, Next morning Coco is found dead. They all panic and hide her body. No one ever confesses, the whole world believe Coco is missing. Sean dies of a hear attack in the present day all the old faces get together for the funeral. Milla and Ruby are all grown up and work on their Step sister relationship. Simone who used to be besotted by Sean ends up marrying him.It turned out in 2004 that it was Simone who gave the twins an extra dose of drugs to get them to sleep. Ruby was sick and survived poor Coco dies.OK book this but I did get muddled up with the amount of characters and ex wifes Sean had.
    • 3/5
      A lot of past and present involved. Not one of my favorites by this author but still good.
    • 4/5
      A very good end of summer read! This was my first book by Alex Marwood, I will definitely be looking for more of her books.
    • 4/5
      This was a good book, but something felt missing for me.
    • 5/5
      What a fantastic book! This is my first by Alex Marwood but I'm looking forward to reading more if they're all like this one. The book is set in two different times. In 2004, at a house party for her father's 50th birthday, three year old Coco Jackson goes missing. And in 2016 the story is narrated by Mila Jackson, Coco's older stepsister, following their father's death. The story of what happened to Coco is drip-fed as we follow the events of that weekend and in turn find out what has happened since.The plotting in this book is brilliant. As the story progressed I did start to guess what had happened but the author still had surprises and twists and turns in store for me. It's also a look at how good PR can do wonders for you and your reputation. There are some thoroughly unlikable characters, full of indulgence, back-stabbing and cheating. The ending is fascinating and really challenged what I thought I knew.Absolutely gripping I thought.
    • 1/5
      I haven't come across this author before, so I was interested in reading the book.
      It's set in an area I know quite well, but even knowing that I couldn't get on with it at all.
      To me the characters were shallow and not quite believable.
      I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Little, Brown Book Group via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
    • 3/5
      This is a bit of a confusing book (especially on a kindle when it isn't easy to flick there and back), with interchangeable characters with one thing in common, the fact that nearly all of them are intensely unlikeable. Selfish, mean minded, all revolving around the ghastly Sean Jackson who discards wives like yesterday's underwear. What did happen to Coco, one of Jackson's twin daughters, when she disappeared in 2004? The book moves between the present day and that night in 2004, with different POV's from various characters. I can't say this was an enjoyable read, although it was entertaining. I did carry on turning pages to see if these "lovely" people could possibly get any worse! Look forward to the next book by this author.
    • 5/5
      The Darkest Secret – Another WinnerAlex Marwood returns to brilliant form with this gripping psychological thriller that leaves you gasping for breath to the very last sentence. This is a character led thriller where some of the characters, as in life, just leave you cold, and come across as looking out for themselves, while another is looking out for her sister, trying to protect her from this group of parasites around their father.At times this is an incredible moving thriller where you can sympathise with some of the characters and just feel anger towards the others, who come across as self-serving. Marwood uses some brilliant techniques, of taking us back to events seen through each other the characters eyes and the narrative of now through the eyes of one of the sisters, Camilla, known as Mila.Mila and Ruby who are the two most central characters in the story are attending their father’s funeral, and it is the first time they have met since events that happened in 2004, when Ruby was 3 and Mila was 15. Mila and Ruby both would like to know what happened to Ruby’s twin sister Coco, and throughout the book we are given glimpses back to 2004, when she disappeared. All the other characters we see the events through their eyes and actions.Both Mila and Ruby know everyone of their father’s friends and his new wife know more than they are telling them, and do not who really they can trust. Their new stepmother is behaving the most strange even though she got what she eventually wanted, Sean Jackson.The intertwined story of 2004 and the present day presents some interesting views and you have massive sympathy for Ruby and Mila, who seem to be dealt with like mushrooms. Shovelled with sh... and kept in the dark. If I go on to far I could give away so many of the interesting twists and turns in the plot. Alex Marwood, like a magician uses slight of hand and misdirection to that you can never really work out who did what to whom, you have suspicions but that is it. This is the sort of plot that even Hercule Poirot would have struggled to solve as each of Sean’s friends stands out as someone you would not believe if they told you what time it was.The Dark Secrets is yet another winner from Alex Marwood, in that you are really kept guessing to the very end, and still have hopes for Coco and Ruby. The prose that Marwood uses draws you in and before you know it you are half way through the book, this is an absolute stunner of a thriller. Alex Marwood’s writing will grab you by the throat and keep a hold on you until the final full stop.