Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus
Mystery Thriller
Rating:
Synopsis
Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery’s never been there, but she’s heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.
The town is picture-perfect, but it’s hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone’s declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.
Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. And the longer she’s in Echo Ridge, the clearer it becomes that everyone there is hiding something. The thing is, secrets are dangerous–and most people aren’t good at keeping them. Which is why in Echo Ridge, it’s safest to keep your secrets to yourself.
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Review
Two Can Keep a Secret is every cold case addict’s and Dateline watcher’s dream. It centers on a town that has experienced two murders and the threat of a third.
The story is told in alternating POV between Ellery and Malcolm. Ellery and her brother Ezra are newcomers to the town, sent to live with her grandmother after her mother, Sadie, is sent to rehab. Sadie has barely been back to town since her sister’s murder years ago, and Ellery and Ezra know little about the town of what’s happened. Malcolm is the brother of the number one suspect in the town’s most recent murder just five years before. I liked these two very different perspectives. Ellery is obsessed with crime, and to her, everyone is a suspect, while Malcolm knows what it is like to be the suspect.
The story was well-written and fast-paced enough to keep my interest. I didn’t love the characters, but that’s okay. I liked them well enough, and as I mentioned, these two seemed like the best two POV characters in the cast. I found the mystery to be intriguing, but it was definitely something you would see on Dateline. There was not anything new. That is not a complaint, just an observation.
Two Can Keep a Secret was a quick, enjoyable read, and I would certainly read more books by this author.
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I read The Cousins by Karen McManus and enjoyed it. I will have to try this one. Nice review Rae.