One Little Secret is the latest novel by author Cate Holahan. It tells the story of three couples, who are also neighbors that decide to rent a beach house for a week while their children are at summer camp. What starts as a relaxing beach week in a beautiful Hamptons beach house, flowing champagne and fabulous food ends in murder.

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From the publisher:

Everyone has a secret. For some, it’s worth dying to protect. For others, it’s worth killing.

The glass beach house was supposed to be the getaway that Susan needed. A taut, locked-room mystery with an unforgettable cast of characters, One Little Secret promises to keep readers’ eyes glued to the pages and debating the blinders that we all put on in the service of politeness.

Throughout the first evening, liquor loosens inhibitions and lips. The three couples begin picking up on the others’ marital tensions and work frustrations, as well as revealing their own. But someone says too much. The next morning one of the women is discovered dead on the private beach.

Detective Gabby Watkins must figure out who permanently silenced the deceased. As she investigates, she learns that everyone involved was hiding something that could tie them to the murder.

When the book begins, we meet all of the parents as they are dropping their kids for their week-long camp trip all the while anticipating their impending vacation. What struck me as odd, is none of the couples seems particularly close. Sandra, the matriarch of the group and her husband Nadal recently moved to the neighborhood. She wanted to get the couples together to get to know one another and bond as their children had. Each of the main characters are professionals in their own right and seemed to be more focused on obtaining social status rather than fostering lifelong friendships. You can tell that the couples seemed standoffish and awkward with one another. Is it the secrets they are hiding? Or they are so stuffy that they don’t know how to have a good time. If I went in on a Hamptons beach house for a week, you better believe I’m going to make the best of it even if my roommates were drips!

Another protagonist is the straight-laced detective Gabby Watkins. We meet her as she is investigating the possible sexual assault of a nanny at a local party. While reading, I wondered just how this arch tied into the main storyline. Eventually, it did, but not in the way that I suspected. There were several characters that we needed to learn the background on. This lead to some confusion on my part. The book moved at a good pace. It’s told in an alternating timeline; before, the day of the crime and after the crime. I appreciate that the author didn’t drag the story along and tossed a few bones at the reader to keep the interest up.

The ending was satisfying, and there were twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. Overall, One Little Secret will make a great summer beach read. It’s another book that touts itself as a “psychological thriller,” and I do think the author accomplished that.

My rating:

5/5

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books, Meryl Moss Media, and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.