Holy wow, I loved this book. As Shelby travels to visit her former best friend and lover before he is executed, she thinks back on her life and her memories with Eddie, and takes us with her. I enjoyed the way the story was told - through Shelby as she sifted through her memories to try to make sense of her life and Eddie's life, and how there is quite a twist at the end, that you would never expect, because you don't even think there will be a twist at all. The story is haunting and fascinating and tells a tale of mental illness and just how our experiences can shape us.

I absolutely recommend this book! The book was amazingly well written and fast paced. The author did not give room for boredom, it was page turning and full of mystery. The book felt more like a very realistic movie that you're living in and it was an amazing adventure! read it one go. Definitely recommend!

Entertaining and well written book, good story telling. A bit slow paced but then that made the story more enjoyable.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

3.5 stars rounded up. Plot was predictable, yet it was well-written enough to keep me reading.

Shelby Truman is a highly successful romantic novelist tapping out stories involving her heroine Patricia Harlow. After forty two novels, the public shows no sign of losing its appetite for the sultry Patricia and her ability to choose precisely the wrong kind of man for her peace of mind and blood pressure. It’s a grey Chicago morning, and Truman is taking a deep breath and trying type something – anything – which will trigger the latest episode of inflamed passions and yearning bodies, when she receives a piece of registered mail which her assistant, Billy, has just signed for. She is used to convincing her readers that Patricia’s heart has ‘missed a beat’, but now fiction becomes reality.

“The return address at the top of the envelope indicates that the sender is Robert Crane Esq. of Limite, Texas. I know the name. Eddie’s attorney. A twinge of anxiety starts deep in my chest. I’d been trying not to think about Eddie, but that’s impossible this week.

The thing is, I’ve always thought about Eddie. We go way, way back, to when we were children living in Limite.”

Eddie is Eddie Newcott, the boy who used to live across the street in Chicory Lane, Limite. The boy who was just a bit different from all the other kids at school. The kid whose dad was a rough and abusive oilfield mechanic. The kid whose mom turned to the bottle to escape her violent husband and the beatings he handed out to their only child. But that was then. Now sees Eddie fallen on hard times. Times so hard that he achieved brief notoriety in the tabloid press, and has now been sentenced to death by lethal injection for murdering his pregnant girlfriend, slashing her open, dragging the foetus out and then arranging the two corpses on his front lawn, posed in an obscene mockery of a Nativity tableau. And it was Christmas Eve.

“EVIL EDDIE…” …”SATANIST IN GRUESOME RITUAL..” … ‘SUSPECT CLAIMS TO BE THE DEVIL …”

With these headlines dancing before her eyes, Truman reads that all efforts to appeal for clemency on the grounds of insanity have failed, and that Eddie Newcott will die in four days time. As one of his last requests, the condemned man has asked for a visit from Shelby Truman.

What follows is a wonderfully written and heartbreaking account of the bond between Eddie and Shelby. It is as good a coming-of-age novel as I have read for many a year, but Benson’s skill as a storyteller doesn’t stop there. He delivers the poignancy and unbearable sensitivity of first love and sexual awakening. His account of how children escape from the shackles slapped on by their parents is masterly. Sometimes these shackles are forged from too much love, while with other children, the shackles are tempered in the fires of cruelty and hatred. There is also a very clever murder mystery, which isn’t resolved until the last few pages, and then the resolution brings only heartbreak.

I am never entirely sure what a ‘literary novel’ is, but if it consists of elegant writing, a fine ear for dialogue and a gimlet eye for the painful inconsistencies of human behaviour, then The Secrets On Chicory Lane ticks that box too.

Like Shelby Truman, Raymond Benson is a highly successful writer. He has written thrillers under his own name, most notably his Black Stiletto Saga, and has also written novels based on video games. He has taken up the baton from authors who are no longer with us, like Tom Clancy, and has written several James Bond stories which have either been based on established screenplays – like Die Another Day – or standalone original stories such as The Man With The Red Tattoo.

Great book! Looking forward to reading more by this author! Highly recommend!

Unbelievably good book. I cried when reading many parts of this all-consuming story. Narrated by popular romance novel writer Shelby Truman, she takes you through her life story up until the present--and boy will her tale stay with you for a long time. At times tragic and melancholy and seriously gut wrenching, the author Raymond Benson does not tell you how to feel or what to think when reading, he simply lets the story be told in Shelby's own words. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It was well written while also being fast-paced and finally revealing a completely satisfying ending. I was truly blown away by this book. If you only have the inclination to read one book this summer and want to pick up something that is worth your precious time-I recommend this book.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this fantastic book.