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The Darkest Secret  By  cover art

The Darkest Secret

By: Alex Marwood
Narrated by: Beverley A. Crick
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Publisher's summary

Real estate mogul Sean Jackson is throwing himself a splashy 50th birthday party, but trouble starts almost immediately: His ex-wife has sent his teenage daughters to the party without telling him; his current wife has fired the nanny; and he's finding it difficult to sneak away to his mistress. Then something truly terrible happens: one of his three-year-old twins goes missing. No trace of her is ever found. The attendees of the party, nicknamed the Jackson Associates by the press, become infamous overnight. Twelve years later, Sean is dead. The Jackson Associates assemble for the funeral, together for the first time since that fateful weekend. Soon the barbed comments and accusations are flying. By the end of the weekend, one will be dead. And one of Sean's daughters will make a shocking discovery.

©2016 Alex Marwood (P)2016 Tantor

What listeners say about The Darkest Secret

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    5 out of 5 stars

Wow

Narrator was excellent
The story was fantastic!!! I thought I guessed what happened then it twisted and I saw I was wrong until boom it retwisted and I was mostly right but shocked non the less
I am being cryptic because I do not want to give even a glimpse away.
You will enjoy it trust me
A. Szkola

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34 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

????

If I say anything it will ruin the fun. Just read it!!! It is well worth it

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25 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Slow start, then very good but hard to follow...

A little slow for the first half then it picks up and gets pretty interesting. You have to be fully attentive when listening (don't be browsing Facebook and such) because there are tons of characters and it can get a bit challenging to keep them all straight. But overall, I really liked it and would recommend it.

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

What to think about this one?

I've had to let this book digest before writing a review. I love this author and it pains to say that I was a bit let down with this novel. Objectively speaking its excellent. There is expert writing, characters are fully developed, and I'd recommend it to anyone. However, I did have the following dislikes: never being able to fully empathize with any character, slow at times, two other mysteries left dangling, the change in retelling present and past a couple of times gave me whiplash, but what baffled me the most is how two amateur psychologists, who admit to knowing the DSM by heart, couldn't find more fault in our criminal. For me, this is a good, solid book and one I would recommend, it must be I expected something different.

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20 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Colossal Disappointment

I'm totally disappointed in this book. I eagerly awaited it's release because of how great Alex Marwood's two previous books were.
As always, the writing is wonderful and I think the story had great promise. The characters are well developed and intriguing.
However, the story pretty much fell apart at the end. Yes, there were lots of twists and turns, but I found the ending totally unsatisfying and it ruined the whole experience for me.
The narration is great, but it can't save this book.

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14 people found this helpful

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Absolutely twisted

By midway through most mysteries and tales of psychological suspense I have figured out the ending, but hats off to Marwood! I couldn't put this work down. I didn't see the twists and turns or the full story until the epilogue. I am still left wondering who was with the main male character in the end.
I would recommend this book to anyone tired of the generic mystery formula!

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12 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Unsure

This review contains spoilers- I was able to guess who was the perpetrator of the crime rather early on. I also assume the same person killed Linda and Jimmy. I didn't like how the book ended. No one paid for their actions but the children and they were not at fault. This book does not end up in a pretty little bow, it ends leaving you feel like there must be more.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliantly told tale of mystery and grief

Alex Marwood has such an absorbing manner of writing that I find facets of myself unveiled in every one of her characters. The detail and vivacity of each person, in every circumstance, is so casually realistic and entertaining that one nearly feels the chill tang of the sea air and the dank smell of the pub, even as one feels a ping of self-annoyance, or self-congratulations. "The Darkest Secret" is a very forgettable title, but the people within its pages will stick around in your psyche, and some of them are probably recognizable from your own expanded sphere of friends and family.

The story told in this novel is sad, familiar, and torn from the headlines. Marwood has shredded, mangled and repasted it into a new and different tale, sad but no longer evocative of painful news, and piling on twists and troubles to keep the reader enrapt and appalled throughout the telling. This is NOT my favorite Alex Marwood novel, but it easily rates 5 stars because her writing, her storytelling, and the astonishing ease with which she pulls the reader into a world completely foreign to one's own is sheer magic.

Beverley A. Crick does an outstanding job with the narration. No one could have done better.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Colorful Characters

Where does The Darkest Secret rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Hmm...I'd say somewhere in the middle.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I honestly liked the story, but I would have enjoyed it more if the flow from past to present had been more obvious.

What does Beverley A. Crick bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Great narration, enjoyed her voice and ability to change characters.

Any additional comments?

I thought the story was good, but in my opinion it does not make for a great "audio" experience. I don't mind a story jumping back and forth in time, but I found on more than one occasion I was wondering whether it was present day or past.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not that great. Never got into it.

Seriously like 7 hours in I could care less what's happening and I'm not even sure who's who yet.

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8 people found this helpful