*ARC kindly given by @netgalley for my honest opinion.*

"As Sick as Our Secrets" by A.B. Whelan is a compelling psychological thriller that delves into the complexities of family dynamics and hidden truths. Whelan's skillful storytelling and well-developed characters create a gripping narrative that keeps you guessing until the very end. With its twists and turns, "As Sick as Our Secrets" is a suspenseful and thought-provoking read that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.

I tried on several occasions to pick this one up and read it through but the story and the characters just couldn't hold me. I found it incredibly disjointed and the lack of a flow to the story far to disturbing. Just not for me.

Olivia Campbell is married, has A beautiful home, financial security ,,, she also has secrets.

But she's not the only one ..... finding a journal in her husband's study, she discovers that he also has secrets he has kept from her.

When a young girl goes missing, she becomes embroiled into the investigation. The things she discovers are only coincidences .... or are they? Does she really want to know?

This was not as suspenseful as what I was suspecting, but there are a few twists and turns to keep things interesting. The characters are finely drawn.

Many thanks to the author / InMotion Capital / Netgalley for the digital copy of this Psychological Drama/Thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This book started out a bit slow for me but it did pick up and got better...and I enjoyed reading it

Every family has its secrets but in this family takes the cake. A woman suspects her husband when a girl goes missing and she and 2 friends unravel the mystery. Though the plot was not entirely original, this was a fast-paced, entertaining read with unbelievably messed-up characters. 3 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley, InMotion Capitol and A. B. Whalen for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was a great read! Olivia is someone who was married to a murderer and didn't know it at first. Richard is a handsome guy who is the founder of a non profit organization that helps people in need. He likes to help women who are in trouble. Show them how it is to be loved. Olivia's friend Ashley tells her about a patient she has who has fell on hard times. She's a recovering addict and talks about how she had this guy who buys her nice things and rapes her. When olivia finds Skylers purse in her husband Richard's trunk, she becomes suspicious. Ashley seeks Olivia's help in trying to find out what happened to her patient. They enlist a third friend Betty who is the wife of a cop. This book was crazy! Just when I thought it was going in one direction it turned in a completely different direction. Fantastic read!

A B Whelan has written a very intense and very unusual psychological thriller in As Sick As Our Secrets. It is a real “wow” factor thriller that strays from normally anticpated and accepted formulatic moves and paths. Secrets evokes contrasting emotions from different readers. Secrets evokes contrasting emotions from every reader. Part of you wants to put it down in want of a story much less harsh. Part of you is “white-knuckling” to the book, or e-reader, and sweating it gasping for more. Such a harsh trick to play on the reader Ms. Whelan.
The original cover had a statement near the top: “A Devious Thriller.” How true this statment is! Sectrets is a very devious and fast-paced thriller. It is extremely top-shelf writing IMHO, whether you like the book or not. And, there will be those of you out there that love it, but at times don’t really like it. Some will love it from the very beginning to the climatic ending. But, this book may not be for everyone. It was for me and I am glad that I read it. However, that being said, it was a very intense and somewhat graphic novel at times with some very disturbing subject matter that Ms. Whelan tried to play down to the correct notch. It played with the reader’s sensibilities of normalcacy and morality with a giant hook on the end of the line.
Secrets begins with the killer, a child, getting his feelings hurt by a girl. She definitely needs to apolgize. The book shifts from different angles throuout, for example, chapter two has Oliva waking up feeling really out of it and in some deal of pain 36 years later. She is a Swedish immigrant who is not proud of all that she has done to get to where she has. Moste people believe that she has a very enviable life. But, do they really know her husband, Richard? Each chapter of the book is told from a different character in the book’s point of view - Olivia, Ashley, the psychologist who is barely holding on by a thread and her life seems to be teetering, and Betty, the housewife who is trying to make the best with her cop husband and kids, and her sister and her children sponging off them.
Throughout the book there is a serial killer on the loose, the fifty shades killer, who kidnaps, enslaves, rapes, tortures and finally kills the victims. And, Olivia, Betty and Ashley believe that they have a positive identification on the fifty shades killer. They decide that they must try to catch this pervert before he strikes again.
Yes, Secrets is definitely not a boring book. Ms. Whelan has written us one excellent psycological thriller. I believe that she will be a writer to keep an eye out for. She has definitely got game. I noticed reading other reviews of this book that females were particulary drawn to Secrets. This came as quite a surprise and I have no explantion for this observation. However, I will say that it was moot in my point. I really enjoyed As Sick As Our Secrets by A B Whelan, and I will give it a 3.75 stars, rounded to 4-stars.
I wish to thank NetGalley, InMotion Capital Publishing, and especially Ms. Whelan for additional efforts ensuring that an e-book copy was made available for review. The opportunity to read this digital e-book is strictly in exchange for an unbiased, honest review.

3 stars!

As sick As Our Secrets is a dark, psychological thriller that grabbed me from the first chapter - 27 years earlier from the killers POV. The rest of the book is told in three alternating POV‘s: Olivia - married to Richard, a very successful, rich businessman. Ashley - a troubled therapist and Olivia’s best friend. Then there’s Betty - a friend whom Olivia and Ashley lost touch with after some Las Vegas shenanigans. The plot centers around these three women teaming up to find the Fifty Shades Killer - with Richard being their #1 suspect after finding Ashley’s patients’ journal in the trunk of his car. Each of these women have a few secrets of their own.

I was pretty excited to get my hands on this book. While it didn’t completely “wow” me, I was entertained for the most part. I found myself distracted at times, so it took me awhile to read. I was looking for more twists and more suspense - it never really happened for me. Most of this book is pretty unbelievable, but if you can put that thought aside and enjoy the entertainment value it offers, you will enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Weapenry Co-op and A.B. Whelan for a copy in exchange for my review.

Olivia Campbell is living comfortably to a wealthy man, Richard, but she’s anything but at peace. That’s because she’s slowly coming to the understanding that he just might be a serial killer.

The story is mostly told from three points of view: Olivia’s, Ashley Hayes (Olivia’s best friend) and Betty (Ashley’s friend). However, the book opens with a chilling point of view from the killer, 27 years earlier. You’ll have to read the book to find out his identity. It starts with a bang and proceeds rather quickly thereon out. However, the transitions between the three narrators was often confusing as they are all in first person. While I liked getting their individual perspectives, third person might have worked more effectively as I never really felt like I got a strong sense of who these women really were, Olivia excepted. She was a complicated woman with a tragic history that unfolds throughout the book.

While I found the story interesting, it too often required a belief suspension I couldn’t master. Some of the actions taken individually by these women were just not logical until they took action as a group. Too many lines of the story were not fully explored, leaving me wanting more of something I just couldn’t put my finger on. I’m a character driven reader and this is written more for those with a consumption for plot driven stories as it accomplished that very well. I got to the end and found I really didn’t have much of an emotional investment in any of the characters, an essential element for me.

It’s a good story that I liked well enough but just didn’t grab me in the way the author’s first book did. I highly recommend it for those that like an interesting plot that is well developed and don’t necessarily need expansive character development.

Great read ! A five star winner by A.B. Whelan! 25 years in the past a high school boy strangles his girlfriend to death and dumps her body. This, because she dared to break up with him.
Today - Olivia has been married to Richard for 10 years. She is served warm milk most nights by her husband so she can sleep well. Why is always she so sick in the morning? Her husband does rule the house. Olivia has no access to cash, no outside job, and constantly annoys her husband who works as a charity big shot. One day she sees a woman's scarf hanging outside Richard's car door, and in the trunk cell phone, purse and wallet with the identity of Skyler O'Neill. She sort of confronts her husband - he tells her she needs a shrink. Funny, but her best friend, Ashley, IS a psychiatrist who HAS a patient named Skyler O'Neill.
Olivia breaks into her husband's office at home and finds a book of porn sketches.
25 years ago, Richard was a supreme "mama's boy" when he went to college - seeing mom every weekend. He beats a woman while at college, because she made fun of him for having mom's picture in his glove compartment. Richard is humiliated, goes berserk, and beats the girl to death by slamming her head on the dashboard. He dumps the body in the water.
Now, Olivia begins to think Richard is too close to his mother and also may be a pervert.
Ashley sees her ONLY patient, Skyler, once. Skyler's cousin, Peter, knows Ashley. He told Ashley that some guy took Skyler to his "sex dungeon" and kept her locked up for weeks. In a weird turn of events, Ashley goes to a bar, picks up a guy and wants him to do some of these things to her. Why?
Olivia admits to Ashley that once she married Richard, everything changed. He controlled her. She wanted a position at his work and he squashed it. And a baby!!! No way.
Once Skyler appears again, Ashley does a sketch artist thing with her and the result looks an awful lot like Richard, to Olivia. Betty, a friend of Ashley, teams up with the two to find out where Skyler disappeared to, again. (Betty's husband is a cop). The three of them visit Skyler's parents and would rather not live there OR with them. Sky's sister did give some information to Olivia, however. Now the hunt is on! The three decide to play detective to find Skyler. With a bit of wry humor, they are able to buy 2 illegal guns. Olivia admits to Ashley that she thinks Richard is the famous "50 shades killer".
Richard does give Olivia a job BUT a day after she starts working, he pland a camp out alone with Olivia. He has to see mom on the way. A stranger, his mom's younger sister, Lisa, is with her. This is no stranger - it's Richard's REAL mom.
Meanwhile, Ashley and Peter get a porno recording of Richards' on tape, send it to Olivia and...
A great story! Holds your interest throughout! Recommend!

We all have secrets and we all eat lies when our hearts get hungry. However, Olivia is finding it hard to swallow this whooper of a secret. As Sick As Our Secrets, is a dark, gnarly and lurid read that leaves you feeling unhinged.

As Sick As Our Secrets, immediately draws you in with “What would you do if you found out your husband was a serial killer?” Poor Olivia, it seems her husband - her knight in shining armor, you could say, was really just a sick psychopath wrapped in aluminum foil!

As Sick As Our Secrets, is a shocking, addictive page-turner. Whelan mixes up a tasty, terrifying tonic of a tale that leaves you drunk but still thirsty for more. 5 stars❤️ yet another favorite!

“When you keep lying to everybody, even to yourself, the lies become part of you, like a tumor or cancer that spreads and grows inside of you, making you sick.”

Surprisingly I actually liked this one better than I thought I would , it kept me guessing though out the story and kept me pulled into it, with that said I want to think Netgalley for giving me a chance at read it and review it in a change for my honest opinion.

Maybe because her name was also Olivia but I constantly kept seeing Olivia Wild as the narrator.

I would love to say this was a different kind of serial killer story, but since I usually steer clear of those, I'm afraid I wouldn't be objective. BUT I do think it's SAFE, as in the gruesome details of killings read more like a psych background of what's going on (and WHY) inside the man's head than just sheer slaughtering with bloodstreams Tarantino style.

It's more of a game as both narrators are actually guilty, of different crimes in life but still. This is no Silence of the Lambs. More like a Bonnie and Clyde gone up against each other.

In my opinion, the cover art doesn't do this book justice. The story is such pleasure to scroll through. It's actually funny in its set up as well - I mean, the POOR wife's family (the one that supposedly can't pay for heat and all) lives in Sweden. At first, I almost wanted to put the book down and thought it simply wasn't researched but then realized that the only things I actually do know about Sweden are IKEA and the usual stereotypes. OK, so maybe it's possible.

And even if that one detail was farfetched, this story is still entertaining as hell, with a bunch of psych elements. But not too brainy, not too much analyzing who did what. More like a silent action thriller that gets so farfetched at times it's funny. Hell, it's Tarantino meets American Psycho at times. Because "the killer" here is also handsome, rich, calculating and utterly disturbed.

It's just different. Not for everybody probably. But highly likable where other "thrillers" bored me at least.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest review.

The thriller is divided into two parts. The plot is composed of the respective perspectives of the three girlfriends. At the centre of the plot is a ripper who is not a subject to the law.

... The curtain is raised and the pink soap bubble has burst. A monster emerges that takes the three friends to their own personal limits or lets them grow beyond; depending on how you turn the perspective.
Black and white becomes grey, the boundaries of the law are blurred and the truth remains what it should be...

An extremely enthralling psychological thriller.

Thank you Weapenry Co-Op and Net Gallery for this roller coaster, intense, suspenseful novel.

This is a book about Ashley, Olivia, and Betty who team up to catch the 50 Shades killer who they believe is Olivia's husband, Richard.

Richard works helping women and children find hope in their lives away from abusive men. I didn't like Richard, he is arrogant, abusive, and mean to his wife. I do like how she does little things to his stuff that he doesn't know about. This makes Olivia feel better in a way. Olivia wakes up one day to feel like she has been drugged. Her husband dismisses it like it was a sneeze. While Richard is at work, Olivia goes snooping through his belongings and finds more than she bargained for. This sets Olivia and her friends into bringing Richard to justice, if he is the true 50 Shades killer. When Ashley asks Olivia to see a client name Skyler, Olivia gets hooked on trying to find out what happened to Skyler once she misses a lot of her appointments and family dismisses her. Olivia is bored and under Richard's thumb that she makes this her mission behind his back.

There is a great revenge scene in this book. I loved how this book flowed through the pages, I tried putting this book down and kept picking it up almost immediately. I recommend.

thanks again

Cherie'

When I first started reading this book I was hooked from the first page as the future perpetrator gives his account of how a first love goes horribly wrong which sets the pace for the rest of the book and future slayings. This book weaves a story about three women who actively seek to find out who the "Fifty Shades of Gray" serial killer is. One of the women believes it may be her husband (Olivia Campbell), another one is tied to the one of the murder victims professionally (Ashley), and the last woman, well, she's just there to help out the best she can as a cop's wife (Betty). The thing that all of these women have in common besides being old friends are dark secrets of their own.

The reason I am giving this book 4/5 stars is because I wanted to hear more of the perpetrator's story rather than the women's account of situations. I believe that if the book kept with the same style it has in the first couple of chapters, this would have been an amazing psychological thriller, especially if we were more inside of the serial killer's head. By telling the story from the point of view of three different women, it became to be drawn out and it took a very long time to finish the book ( 1 week and that is a long time for me when I am able to read great books within 24 hours or less). The story does allude to rape and bondage, so if you are offended easily by these sorts of things, this book is not for you. I will say, however, there are no graphic instances in the book that will vividly describe any rapes or sexual activity. I will say that the author does a wonderful job at telling a story and being detailed in her explanations and writing.

There were a lot of typos within the book for spelling Olivia's name and I was confused at first thinking "Oliva" was a nickname of some sorts..

I would recommend this book to others who are in search of a suspenseful novel, but the psychological thriller aspect of this book left something to be desired and that was very disappointing to me.

This story was a mixed bag for me. I loved some, loathed some, and found myself routing for characters one minute while rolling my eyes at them the next.

As you can imagine, when three women, aka amateur sleuths, set about finding a serial killer, all kinds of mayhem is bound to ensue.

Although parts of the story require a fair amount of suspension of belief (at least for me) there's no denying the author is able to paint a vivid picture. Full credit to her for that.

This is not a romance, so I caution readers to heed the warnings before downloading a copy.

4 Stars!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A super powerful account of marital lies and terrible sadistic secrets. But the most powerful story in all of the darkness was the friendship between three women who each needed one another to find themselves. Each one of these women had secrets from their past that broke them in some way. But together they weren’t as sick as their secrets anymore.
Murder, deceit, drug addiction...it’s all in there too. Then there’s Richard. But he’s such a disgusting and vile person that there’s nothing more to say about him. You need to read the book :)

Thank you to #NetGalley, the author and publisher for my free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. 🙌🏻📚

Hi, I’m Christina and I am a self-proclaimed psychological thriller addict. ‘As Sick as Our Secrets’ by A.B Whelan absolutely stands up and stands out in this category! If you want to stay up until 3am reading, you’re going to want to pick this book up now!

‘As Sick as Our Secrets’ opens with an instantly gripping chapter written from the killer’s perspective. Chilling and disturbing, it sets the tone for the rest of the book – the writing is descriptive and truly puts the reader inside the killer’s head. I think this perspective could’ve been a bit shorter, as it seemed that the intent was partially to evoke sympathy for the killer, however it served to give us necessary insight into his background and state of mind.

From the second chapter t0 the halfway point, the story is told by Olivia & Ashley in alternating chapters. Olivia is a U.S. immigrant from Sweden who is married to Richard, the owner of an (ironically quite profitable) nonprofit foundation, and hides the fact that her life is empty and lonely from her only friend, Ashley. Ashley is a psychiatrist with a penchant for booze & cocaine, sometimes coupled with a Tinder hookup gone wrong. Betty, a housewife-turned-realtor married to a cop, is introduced as a third narrator in the second half of the book. I do wish that her name had at least been mentioned earlier in the book, because it felt kind of disjointed adding in a new character at that point, but the tie-in was eventually explained.

After Ashley’s first patient, a young woman with an unbelievable story and a drug problem, is murdered, the 3 narrators work together to untangle the secrets that they hope will lead them to the killer. Throughout their tense, dangerous, journey, their own secrets begin to unravel, inspiring change and bringing them all closer together.

I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5, because at some times Ashley & Olivia’s dialogues were so similar that I had to look back at the chapter heading to remember who the narrator was. Additionally, I felt that the story as a little unbelievable at times, with regards to certain character actions, and there were slow points throughout the first 2/3 of the book - however, A.B. Whelan does a great job of pulling everything together for a quite satisfying ending to the book. I GREATLY appreciated the resolution and not trying too hard to be ambiguous or mysterious in the end.

Overall I recommend this book, with a CW/TW for rape & torture, as it may be disturbing to some readers – though not graphic, it is threaded throughout the book.