The Secrets We Share

by Edwin Hill

Genres: Psychological Thrillers; Suspense

Synopsis

In a mesmerizingly twisty standalone suspense novel perfect for fans of Shari Lapena and Riley Sager, acclaimed author Edwin Hill explores the deep bonds--and deadly secrets--between two very different sisters haunted by the crimes of their father murdered nearly twenty years earlier... Two sisters, one long-ago murder, and a web of terrifying secrets...
At first glance, Natalie Cavanaugh and Glenn Abbott hardly look like sisters. Even off-duty, Natalie dresses like a Boston cop, preferring practical clothes and unfussy, pinned-up hair. Her younger sister, Glenn, seems tailor-made for the spotlight, from her signature red mane to her camera-ready smile. Glenn has spent years cultivating her brand through her baking blog, and with the publication of her new book, that hard work seems about to pay off. But her fans have no idea about the nightmare in Glenn and Natalie's past. lt;p/gt;Twenty years ago, their father's body was discovered in the woods behind their house. A trauma like that doesn't fit with Glenn's public image. Yet, maybe someone reading her blog does know something. There have been anonymous online messages, vague yet ominous, hinting that she's being watched. And with unsettling coincidences hitting ever closer to home, both Glenn and Natalie soon have more pressing matters to worry about, especially when a dead body is found in an abandoned building. lt;p/gt;Natalie is starting to wonder how much Glenn really knows about the people closest to her. But are there also secrets Natalie has yet to uncover about those she herself trusts? For two decades, she's believed their father was murdered by their neighbor, with whom he was having an affair. But if those events are connected to what's happening now, maybe there's much more that Natalie doesn't know. About their father. About their neighbors. About her friends. Maybe even about herself. lt;p/gt;But there are no secrets between sisters...are there?

Release date: January 6, 2022

Publisher: Kensington Books

Print pages: 50

Sample

MAVIS ABBOTT IMAGINES HER TWELVE-YEAR-OLD EXISTENCE AS A set of boxes stored in a closet. When she wants to ignore something, she stuffs it into a box, ties it with a bow, and shoves it to the very rear of the closet. When she needs to focus, she tears the box open and scrutinizes what she finds inside. Today, she’s all about the algebra test that she has this morning, one that starts in twenty minutes, one that she studied for nearly all weekend and that she intends to ace, but Kevin Chandler seems to have other plans. He won’t leave her alone as he trails her on her walk to West Roxbury Prep. “Come on,” he says. “Are you afraid?”

Mavis keeps her head down and picks up her pace. It’s pouring, the kind of cold and unrelenting rain that November brings to Boston. Cars speed by on the busy road, splashing dirty waves of water up across the sidewalk. Mavis is in the seventh grade, and this is the year she’s earned the privilege of walking from her house to the school by herself. A single infraction, her mother has warned, and she’ll lose the privilege. Mavis has three blocks to go before hitting campus: under the stone railroad bridge, past the abandoned factory, and across Centre Street. Once she gets to school, she’ll be able to escape Kevin and find her best friend, Stella, and they’ll talk about the party this last weekend or the cute detective Mavis’s mother invited or that glass of eggnog they sipped in the dark till Uncle Bennet caught them. But Kevin is relentless.

“I’m telling everyone that you’re a chickenshit,” he whispers as they nearly make it past the factory.

Mavis turns on him. “I am not.”

“Prove it.”

Lately, Kevin has found any excuse possible to harass Mavis, sitting behind her in class, at lunch, on the soccer field, and Mavis suspects that if she tells her mother about it, her mother will say that Kevin has a crush on her and that she has to tell him to quit it, but the truth is that one of the imaginary boxes Mavis isn’t ready to open is the one that tells her she doesn’t completely want Kevin to stop, even though he’s really, really annoying. She has a microscopic, almost nonexistent crush on him, too, one that she can barely admit, even to herself. And that’s something she really can’t confess to her mother because her mother would freak out. So Mavis shoves Kevin instead.

“Quit it,” he says.

“Leave me alone,” she says, but she doesn’t turn, she doesn’t stalk away, and in that moment, she gives Kevin a glimpse of what it feels like to win. He folds his arms.

The factory sits beside them, behind overgrown brush and a rusty chain-link fence with a TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED sign displayed too prominently to ignore. Enough mortar has worn away that the bricks have disintegrated and threaten the foundation, and sheets of faded plywood shutter the windows. This building has been here for as long as Mavis can remember, slowly decaying. Each morning on her way to school, she dashes along the fence and imagines a hand reaching through the chain-link to cover her mouth and yank her to an unknown fate.

“I dare you,” Kevin says. “Go inside. There’s an old lab. Steal one of the wall tiles and bring it to me. And it’s not that hard of. . .