Monday 8 February 2016

Book ~ "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" (1998) Mary Jane Clark

From Goodreads ~ Secrets can really kill your career. 

Beautiful New York TV anchorwoman Eliza Blake has a past to hide. Her popular co-anchor has a scandal he'd die to keep secret. The next President's pretty wife wants desperately to avoid indecent exposure. A parish priest knows a terrible truth. And a killer has a secret agenda that reaches from New York City's streets to the White House - it includes the time and place where Eliza Blake will have to die.

When popular news anchor, Bill, commits suicide, everyone is shocked.  As the book progress, we learn more about Bill and what drove him to kill himself.

There were a lot of characters in this book and you're not sure who to trust or who has something to hide or who is a murderer.  Eliza is the young widowed mother of a four-year-old daughter.  She works as an anchor at the KEY New and is thankful to have an elderly nanny.  She has a secret from her past that has been recently revealed in a scandal magazine (I didn't think it was that big of deal).  There is a charismatic front-running presidential candidate, his wife and his campaign manager who are all hiding secrets.  Bill and Eliza see the same psychiatrist.  There is a judge who has been making $5,000/month payments to Bill.  There is a homeless man who goes around stealing doorknockers.  Range is Bill's best friend and works at KEY News.  Yelena is the president of the network who is sleeping with Pete, Bill's replacement, and helping him get ahead but he's only using her.  There is the priest who Bill got close to a couple months before his death.  Louise is Bill's ex-wife, who is mourning like a widow even though they had split up years ago.

It is written in third person perspective with the focus on various characters.  I thought the writing style and pacing were okay.  I like the structure ... some of the chapters were longer and some were short.  We find out in the end who the murderer is and I thought who it was was absurd.  It was kind of a letdown to get to the end and find out "who dunnit".

This is the first in the KEY News series (there are currently 12 in the series) and the first one I've read.  I like getting into series and have read and liked other books by this author (the Piper Donovan series) so thought I'd check it out.  I thought this book was just okay and perhaps will read more in the series sometime.

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