The Darkest Secret

The Darkest Secret by Alex Marwood

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


At last, the long awaited new book from Alex Marwood is here and this one is every bit as enthralling and disturbing as her previous works. The book starts with a bang - or rather, an email, imploring friends for information regarding the disappearance of a little girl, the e-mail writer's goddaughter; and there we are, straightaway in the middle of a mystery. A shocking start to the story, a child is missing.
And then we read various witness statements and the realisation dawns that this is more than just a disappeared child.....
In The Darkest Secret we learn about the Jackson family and their friends. To all intents and purposes, this group have perfect lives. Yet underneath their shiny exteriors, this group of people are a mass of contradictions and warped personalities.
Although the story begins in 2004 when property developer Sean is turning fifty and to celebrate has arranged a weekend at his latest development for his family and close friends, the story flits between then and now as two events reveal more about the true personalities of this group of friends and ultimately the truth about what happened in 2004.
Within these pages Alex has conjured up as egoistical a bunch of people as you are ever likely to meet; by turns fascinating and disturbing they are the story. As the story develops and unravels it makes for utterly compelling reading as you try to put the pieces of the jigsaw together. The clues are there but even more enticing, for me, was the fact that some bits are left for the reader to think about and decide upon, or at least that is what I took from it. Without giving anything away, once I have reached the conclusion, I started to question another incident and drew my own conclusions. It is very cleverly done.
This is a book that will keep you pinioned between its pages because you just have to know a bit more, and then a bit more and despite the shallowness of most of the characters they do have a certain lure to them; they are definitely a most intriguing and beguiling bunch!
The story itself is riveting. A missing child is every parents worse nightmare but when you have to live with not knowing the truth, or knowing too much of it, which is worse?
Family and relationships are very much under the microscope here; first and second marriages, siblings and half siblings, parent and child, long term friendships and new ones. Some bonds are stronger than others, some are more easily broken; yet, it is quite surprising which bonds this group of friends are willing to break and it becomes very apparent that beneath the glossy veneer of perfection there is a lot of unhappiness and discontent.
Alex Marwood absolutely nails the personalities of these characters, keeping them interesting and yet contemptible and the storyline is a doozy (the perfect word I feel to describe such an outstanding and unique piece of writing). It has everything you could hope for; darkness, mystery, intrigue and the unthinkable becoming scarily and realistically thinkable.

With thanks to Netgalley and publishers for the ARC of this book.