ISBN: 9781250856135
Narrators: Hillary Huber and
Josephine Huang
Macmillan Audio
11 Hours, 38 Minutes, 26 Seconds
Publisher: Forge Books
Publication Date: 07/12/2022
Format: Audiobook & e-book
My Rating: 4 Stars (ARC)
Set in the upscale DC private school scene, where silence can easily be bought, Aggie Blum Thompson's All the Dirty Secrets asks how far you would go to protect your status and your family, and if some secrets should ever be revealed.
One warm summer night twenty-five years ago, Liza Gold and her friends celebrated their high school graduation with a party on the beach. It should have been the best night of their lives, only one of them never came back out of the ocean.
The tragedy haunted Liza Gold for years. Now, she's a recently divorced working mom struggling to connect with her standoffish teenager daughter Zoe when history repeats itself. Another young woman has drowned at Beach Week, and this time the victim is Zoe’s secret best friend.
Liza begins to suspect that the two deaths are somehow related, which causes her to face hard truths and take an unflinching look at the people she’s called her closest friends for the past two decades. She must discover what really happened to both women before it’s too late.
Praise
“In a rarefied world of wealth and privilege, simmering secrets hide in plain sight. Heart-stopping danger will make you race through the pages to a chilling and shattering conclusion.”
―Liv Constantine, internationally bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish
“All the Dirty Secrets is an electrifying thriller that I couldn't put down. It is both a riveting mystery and a sharp social commentary...this is one you don't want to miss. It will keep you guessing and thinking long after you've turned the last page.”
―Lucinda Berry, bestselling author of The Best of Friends and The Perfect Child
"All the Dirty Secrets will have you racing to the end. This tale was so chillingly real it could have been ripped from the headlines. I loved it!"
―Kaira Rouda, USA Today and international bestselling author
“Thompson pulls no punches with this one…All The Dirty Secrets is atmospheric, shocking, and downright unforgettable. A can’t-miss story for fans of domestic suspense!"
―Carissa Ann Lynch, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Secrets of Cedar Farm
My Review
For fans of Big Little Lies comes an electrifying whodunit summer thriller set in elite Washington, DC by Aggie Blum Thompson—ALL THE DIRTY SECRETS. Two deaths, two decades apart. How are they connected?
The links that tie them together:
An upscale DC private school
Beach Week | Dewey Beach
The rich and privileged suburbs
Two deaths. Both girls.
Best friends of mother Liza (Nikki) and daughter Zoe (Emery)
Twenty-five years apart.
A close circle of friends who will do anything to protect the lies they have buried and their dirty little (big) secrets. A fitting title!
Where nothing is as it appears.
Liza Gold is a newly divorced mom who is on her way to a girl's weekend trip when she discovers her daughter, Zoe is caught up in a tragedy that is all too familiar to her own haunted past. Liza works at the elite prep school where her daughter, Zoe, and her friend, Emery attend. Liza also attended the same school.
Does Liza really know her close friends?
Twenty-five years ago, Liza Gold and her friends celebrated their high school graduation at Beach Week at a party on the beach, which ended in the death of their friend, Nikki.
Liza will never forget that night haunted by the tragedy. The death was ruled as drowning/suicide. However, what really happened that night?
Fast-forward to the present, and now Liza's daughter Zoe is also headed for Beach Week with her friends, and it ends in a tragedy at the same beach. Her best friend is now dead.
Zoe and Liza are not on the best of terms with typical teenager stuff and being newly divorced. Zoe had a secret friend that was older, and Liza did not know about her. That friend just drowned murder or suicide.
When history repeats itself, Liza and Zoe must work together to put the pieces together and try and determine what really happened. Is there a murderer among them?
How far will the killer go to keep their secrets? They could be hiding in plain sight. The only sure thing is that someone is lying and the truth won't stay buried for long.
Multiple plot twists keep the reader guessing all the way to the stunning conclusion, and the link between the mother/daughter friends comes as one of the novel's bigger surprises.
Flashing back and forth from 1994 to the present day, the author cleverly keeps readers in CHILLING suspense while building tension to the events leading up to both tragedies, a decade apart.
Some highly charged themes are addressed: rape, sexual assault, white privilege, murder, racism, and class.
A spellbinding tale of lies and deceit that unfolds piece by devastating piece.
AUDIOBOOK: I read the e-book and listened to the audiobook. The narrators, Hillary Huber (my fav), and Josephine Huang delivered an outstanding performance for all the voices.
My first book by Thompson and look forward to reading more. For fans of authors: Michele Campbell, Wendy Walker, and Kimberly Belle.
A special thank you to #NetGalley #MacmillanAudio and #ForgeBooks for an advanced digital and audiobook copy to read, listen to, enjoy, and review.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 4 Stars ✨✨✨✨
Pub Date: July 12, 2022
About the Author
Before turning to fiction, Aggie Blum Thompson covered real-life crime as a newspaper reporter for a number of papers, including The Boston Globe and The Washington Post. She lives with her husband and two children, a cat, and a dog in the suburbs of Washington D.C.
She is the author of I Don't Forgive You and All the Dirty Secrets. WEBSITE