Dirty Little Secrets has a nice set up. It has a golden-age premise (a closed community which must contain the murderer) but a contemporary setting among affluent professionals.

Their home is a rural gated community outside Wicklow. One of them, Olive, is dead. The police believe the murderer must have been one of the residents and their investigations soon suggest that pretty much everyone had a reason to kill her.

The story is told alternately by the neighbours, and by the deceased Olive herself. This could have come across as whimsical or just plain weird, but her interventions are matter of fact, so it works.

Although the characters are all affluent, they are diverse in age and background, so their experiences and interactions (or lack of) are interesting. There is the tension between the public face and what goes on indoors, and the way that people living only metres apart can have such different experiences. Spain has an easy, engaging writing style and the pages turn nicely.

Why then, did I feel my interest in the story wane as I got further into it? I think it’s partly to do with the structure. Because every character has the same arc, it starts to feel a bit repetitive. Character makes revelation, hints at further dark secrets to come creating hook at end of chapter, next character (usually Olive) reveals what the hook was all about, while setting up further questions…

It also means that some of the revelations feel a bit contrived. (If something deeply personal and traumatic had happened to you that you didn’t want anyone to know about, would you have a photo that references it on your kitchen wall?) I was also a bit disappointed by the ending. It was what I suspected was coming but I hoped I was wrong.

What I liked about Spain’s The Confession was that it took a clever premise and used it to explore some complex issues – in that case the banking crisis and the effects of Ireland’s burgeoning inequality and the attendant corruption on individuals. There were no clear goodies and baddies, the reader was left to work out where responsibility – and their sympathies – lay.

In Dirty Little Secrets, all the characters have ‘issues’ but they feel like they are just there to move on the plot. The characters’ voices and the setting feel oddly generic – this could just as easily be Hertfordshire or upstate New York. There is no sense of a wider critique or ambiguity, that Olive might be a scapegoat or misunderstood. If she was your neighbour, you’d probably want her dead.

Perhaps I’m being unfair, comparing apples and pears. This is an entertaining enough read if you want a twisty mystery and some colourful characters, a slightly edgier Midsomer Murders. Still, it feels like a missed opportunity to me.

This is the first novel I have reads by Jo Spain. What a brilliant read! I’m delighted that there are a few other books by this author which I will now be buying. It’s so good to find a ‘new’ author.

‘Dirty Little Secrets’ is about secrets, lies and deceptions amid several families who live in a ‘gated community’. I have lived in something similar and this made it all the more intriguing. The characters were well developed and realistic.

Olive is found dead. She has lived in the community since it was built and nobody noticed she had not been around for three months. That, in itself is suspicious. The question is, ‘was she murdered’?

Detectives Frank Brazil and Emma Child are investigating and begin to uncover those secrets within the families and outside. Gradually, it becomes apparent that nobody liked Olive and most had a reason to want her dead.

A classy, witty, sometimes nasty whodunnit with a brilliant ending.

Thanks to NetGalley, Quercus Books and Jo Spain for my ARC of Dirty Little Secrets in return for an honest review.

Storming read. Highly recommended.

Brilliant plot, excellent main characters that you invest in. I read this book in one sitting and I would highly recommend it.

I loved this book . Total page turner from the word go ! Olive is dead .. 3 months dead and only now her neighbours notice ! But how and who killed her ? 7 houses in a gated community ... 6 neighbours to Olive and no one noticed . Told from each neighbours stories and the two police investigating with Olive’s chapters speaking from her cold 3 month grave , this book pills you into each of their lives . I loved all the characters and their stories and kept changing my mind the whole way through . Brilliant writing and a well deserved 5 stars !!

A lady's body is found three months after her death. Various neighbours have had recent disagreements with her but did one of them kill her? Or was the death accidental? I really enjoyed this book and in particular the fact the deceased still had a "voice" in it.

EXCERPT: The police men and women hovering around my body right now don't know anything of my story yet. They don't know anything at all, really. They’ve spent the last twenty-four hours trying to rid the house of flies and maggots and pests they know are here but can't see - the mice and the rats. The knawing at my fingers and toes speak to their existence. It's amazing there's anything left of me. 

It's the heat, you see. After an unusually cold spring and early summer, I was doing okay, sitting there on my chair, silently decomposing. The same chair Ron from number seven bent me over for three and a half minutes of mind blowing passion the night before I died, leaving with my knickers scrunched up in his pocket. 

I hope, for his sake, he's got rid of them. 

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Death stalked the Vale.
In every corner, every whisper.
They just didn't know it yet.

Six neighbours, six secrets, six reasons to want Olive Collins dead.

In the exclusive gated community of Withered Vale, people's lives appear as perfect as their beautifully manicured lawns. Money, success, privilege - the residents have it all. Life is good.

There's just one problem.

Olive Collins' dead body has been rotting inside number four for the last three months. Her neighbours say they're shocked at the discovery but nobody thought to check on her when she vanished from sight.

The police start to ask questions and the seemingly flawless facade begins to crack. Because, when it comes to Olive's neighbours, it seems each of them has something to hide, something to lose and everything to gain from her death.

MY THOUGHTS: What a wonderful read! I romped through this, devouring all the revelations about Olive's neighbours. We get to see things from everyone's point of view, including that of the dead woman, the investigating officers, and Olive's neighbours who, as it turns out, all have good reasons for wanting her dead. 

I have to admit to not liking Jo Spain's previous book, The Confession, at all. But I am so glad I decided to pick up Dirty Little Secrets. I loved it. It certainly lives up to its name. Dirty Little Secrets is gossipy and suspenseful, and totally unpredictable. The ending brought a huge smile to my face. 

Dirty Little Secrets by Jo Spain is due for publication February 7, 2019. I definitely recommend pre-ordering this one. 

THE AUTHOR: Jo Spain is the author of the Inspector Tom Reynolds series. Her first book, top ten bestseller With Our Blessing, was a finalist in the 2015 Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller. The Confession her first standalone thriller, was a number one bestseller and translated all over the world. 
Jo is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, a former political advisor in the Irish parliament and former vice-chair of InterTrade Ireland business body. 
She now writes novels and screenplays full-time. Her first co-written TV show TAKEN DOWN was broadcast in Ireland in 2018 and bought by international distributors Fremantle. 
Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and four young children. In her spare time (she has four children, there is no spare time really) she likes to read. Her favourite authors include Pierre Lemaitre, Jo Nesbo, Liane Moriarty, Fred Vargas and Louise Penny. She also watches TV detective series and was slightly obsessed with The Bridge, Trapped and The Missing. 
Jo thinks up her plots on long runs in the woods. Her husband sleeps with one eye open and all her friends have looked at her strangely since she won her publishing deal.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Quercus Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Dirty Little Secrets by Jo Spain for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions. 

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my Goodreads.com page https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2635334811

Jo Spain knows how to write a psychological thriller that makes it hard for ther reader to put it down until the wrong doer is exposed. Part domestic noir, part psychological thriller, Dirty Little Secrets is about how little we know of our neighbours and the lies we tell to make ourselves accepted.

Olive Collins was the first resident of Withered Vale, the curiously named small gated community just outside Wicklow. By all accounts it’s a close knit community, but why then did no-one discover Olive Collins’ body until three months after her death?

D.I. Frank Brazil just wants to put this one to bed so that he can retire and get out of the police force and away from all the depressing work he has been mired in all his working life. Better to get out now and leave the detective work to his partner, the young and fiercely ambitious Emma Child.

But life isn’t ever as easy as that, and as they begin to look into Olive’s death, more and more it seems to be suspicious. Once they start to look into the neighbours to see where a motive might lie, it becomes clear that rather than investigating a wealthy close knit community, they have stumbled into a nest of vipers.

Spain‘s narrative comes from different members of the community and the police officers themselves as she shows us Olive’s life through the eyes of her neighbours and Olive herself.

It turns out that there were many reasons why Olive’s body sat undiscovered for three months. Rather than the likeable 53 year old that police expected to find, the picture thrown up by her neighbours is one where the reader would probably have left her to die alone, too.

Olive is one of those people who was adept at finding other people’s secrets and then using those weaknesses against them. She could see behind the front doors of her neighbours’ houses into their illicit relationships, addictions, secrets and past transgressions.

Jo Spain paints a realistic and often very funny picture of the relationship dynamics behind the couples on this small estate. Once the police start to uncover more detail, it is pretty clear that any number of them could have had motive for sending off this lonely and bitter woman who knew far too much about her neighbours and wasn’t afraid to wield that knowledge like an axe.

Spain gives us a fascinating cast of very well fleshed out characters with whom it is easy for the reader to connect, lending tension to the emotional connection set against the secrets the characters are carrying.

Short chapters and a fast pace coupled with enticing snippets of backstory lend a ‘can’t put down’ quality to the writing and push the reader on to the dénouement, which, whilst not necessarily surprising, is immensely satisfying.

Dirty Little Secrets is a tension fuelled drama full of quirky characters and lots of suspense.

Withered Vale is a small gated residential community. The houses are all pretty up-market.One however is older & smaller. This is Olive's house. It was here before the others were built & even if it isn't so swish & modern, it suits Olive. She lives alone but she tries to be sociable. These are nice people.

Everyone has been busy with their own affairs but are shocked to discover that Olive has been sitting dead in her home for three weeks. Discovery that the vents have been blocked up & her boiler was spewing out carbon monoxide alerts the police that this death may have been no accident. Upon investigation it seems that things with the neighbours was far from amicable- everyone seems to have had a motive to get rid of Olive!

This was a great story with lots of interesting characters. Each time a piece of the story was revealed I was sure knew 'whodunnit'- until we moved on to another person! Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

I enjoyed this book and the different POVs throughout kept things fresh and interesting and I honestly couldn’t work out what secrets everyone was keeping however it loses a star because of the ending I wasn’t happy with the reveal of who actually killed Olive and it felt like it dragged on a bit towards the end. Thank you to Netgalley, Quercus and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Think Lisa Jewell crossed with Liane Moriarty crossed with J.K. Rowling's 'The Casual Vacancy'.

Withered Vale, an exclusive, private, gated residential community. Seven, large, rich houses for the privileged few. Quiet and peaceful, until one of the neighbours spots a swarm of insects rising out of the chimney at no. 4. Police force entry, and discover the rotting corpse of the cottage’s sole occupant - mid-fifties Olive Collins. She's been dead for three months, yet none of her neighbours appear to have noticed. And behind closed doors their reactions to news of her death are even odder.

George at no. 1 feels nothing.
Lily at no. 2 is irritated.
Holly at no. 3 acts openly hostile.
Chrissy at no. 5 can't stop thinking about that horrible woman.
Ed at no. 6 celebrates by popping the champagne.
Ron at no. 7 seems anxious.

What are these people hiding? And, why did they hate Olive so much?

Crammed to the brim with juicy secrets and neighbours behaving suspiciously, Dirty Little Secrets was an engrossing, entertaining read. A slow burn that I would categorise as contemporary domestic drama, rather than psychological thriller or suspense. Also part police procedural, but detectives Frank Brazil and Emma Childs’ investigation takes place primarily at Withered Vale instead of the police station, and also includes some focus on their personal lives.

There are nine narrators – the six neighbours mentioned above, Olive, Frank and Emma. Seems like a lot I know, but every POV was easily recognisable, essential to the plot, and added a fresh perspective to the overall picture. I really liked how first person omniscient was used for Olive's voice – as in she's speaking to me from beyond the grave, all-knowing, dangling hints about her neighbours in my face. Chapters ending on mini cliff hangers had me eagerly anticipating the next one. The authors usage of subplots to underscore/mirror the main plot was cleverly executed, heightened the emotional impact, and made you feel for the characters. The ‘circle of life’ opening segment was well done, and immediately sucked me into the story.

I felt the last half could've benefited from losing 50 pages. There was too much focus on the same plot points, and I found myself becoming frustrated, more than ready to find out who killed Olive. Also, a couple of the secrets were a tad underwhelming, and I'm not sure they were serious enough to warrant that level of anguish? But, I was happy with how everything wrapped up, thought there was a good resolution to the mystery, and that things went in a couple of unexpected intriguing directions.

Would I read another book by Jo Spain? Absolutely. Would I recommend this book? Definitely.

I’d like to thank Netgalley, Quercus, and Jo Spain for the e-ARC.

Review posted on Amazon, Goodreads, Instagram, and Auckland Libraries.

Dirty Little Secrets by Jo Spain

The exclusive gated community of Withered Vale in Ireland appears to have much going for it. These are expensive houses, their owners are aspirational and wealthy, their children allowed to roam free behind the gates. But not all is as it seems. Secrets lurk behind each of these doors but particularly behind No 4. The body of Olive Collins, the owner of No 4 Withered Vale, lay unnoticed and undiscovered for three long months. It was the cloud of flies bellowing out of the chimney that finally gave the game away. Police officers Frank Brazil, so close to retirement, and his partner Emma, so close to the start of her career, are given charge of the investigation into what might be a suspicious death. As they begin to make their visits around the small number of houses on Withered Vale, there are questions they really need the answer to – why did nobody in this small community notice that Olive was missing? Perhaps because they knew that she wasn’t?

This is such a gripping read! And it is indeed packed full of dirty little secrets and it’s up to Frank and Emma to wheedle them out of the occupants of the perfectly named Withered Vale. We’re introduced to each of the households one by one as key members of the community take over the narrative – we have the cheesy lover, the pretentious (and rich) hippies, the mother and daughter who keep themselves to themselves, the retirees who may or may not have been in their holiday home abroad at the time of Olive’s death, there is the son of a wealthy man who now lives alone and is controlled by his addiction, there’s the loving couple who really hate one another, and there’s the wayward children. And then there’s Olive. Olive better than anyone seemed to know what was going on within each of these elegant houses. Her voice isn’t neglected in Dirty Little Secrets. Olive speaks from the grave.

My favourite characters in Dirty Little Secrets, though, apart from one of the young children, are the police officers, Frank and Emma. They investigate this case, hanging around the Vale constantly, almost as if their bosses are trying to get rid of them. Frank is so close to retirement. It’s as if they want to keep him out of trouble. Emma has much to learn but she has a distinctive feel for the case that Frank is keen to develop. Their relationship is absolutely fascinating. They each have their own past to deal with, which they slowly reveal to the other. It’s poignant and so beautifully done. I grew to care for both of these people very much.

And this is what makes Dirty LIttle Secrets such a sophisticated and elegant triumph. The reader might have their preconceptions about the way in which this novel might develop, not least due to the signpost of its title, but they will be wrong. I’m not going to say anything at all about this except to urge you to keep your expectations on hold.

Dirty Little Secrets is such a clever, rich and witty novel. It has that wonderful Agatha Christie feel of a crime committed by one of a small number of confined suspects. There’s such a charm about the way in which we learn about the goings on in each of the houses. But then the reality kicks in and that’s what left me enthralled. People are complicated, even if they live in Withered Vale or if they have to police it, and Jo Spain teases out their true natures, their involving stories, in such a fascinating way. I loved The Confession but it’s quite possible that Dirty Little Secrets is even better. Jo Spain’s books will always go straight to the top of my reading pile.

Other review
The Confession

Set in an expensive gated community, this thriller is a fantastic twisty story that had me suspicious of everyone.

I really loved the narration alternating between the woman who has been killed, the suspects and the detectives trying to unravel all the secrets and lies. All of the neighbours had motive for killing her, as she had a knack for finding everyone’s deepest and darkest secrets. The more the detectives investigate, the tougher their job gets as more and more suspects reveal themselves.

A fantastic read, that kept me guessing throughout. You never know what the next revelation will be.

Show me a book with the word secret in the title and I want to read it. I love secrets! I love their unravelling, I love trying to find the way to the truth, which in this case took me the entire book, ha! 😂

Dirty Little Secrets is intriguing right from the get-go, and it only gets more intriguing as the story moves forward. Now, the reader knows right away that Olive has not just dropped dead, that she was killed. We know, because she herself tells us in the opening chapter. The police however, find a corpse that has been lying around for way too long, blackened, decomposed. What they also find is DNA all over the place, but not on the tape used to block all the air vents in the house. Can’t be a coincidence, right? While we wait for the police to come to the right conclusion, we are also wondering how a person can be dead for nigh on three months without anyone noticing. There are only a few houses in Withered Vale, how come no one noticed Olive had gone MIA, how come no one cared enough? As the police investigate and talk to Olive’s neighbours it becomes clear that she was no one’s favourite person, and as we find out more about Olive through her neighbours on the one hand and through her own words on the other, we learn why that might be. Olive was not the easiest person to have in the community: she was a mean, meddling, judgmental, conniving, self-righteous little busybody with very few redeeming qualities, all in all a woman with a rather despicable character whom I came to loathe, and I can easily see how her neighbours would be glad to be rid of her.

The more secrets are revealed, the more there seem to be. People don’t go and live in a secluded fenced off neighbourhood for nothing, do they. It takes the entire book to unravel everything there is to unravel. This is one of those books where you think: oh just one more chapter, just a few more minutes. If work hadn’t got in the way I would have finished this in a day, that’s how utterly addictive it is. I kept suspecting one neighbour and then another, and then going back to the first, and then to yet another. Towards the end of the novel I became a little worried that the finale would let me down, because the book was so brilliant, so in crescendo, that I feared the conclusion could never live up to my expectations. But you guys!! I couldn’t come up with a more satisfying ending if I tried, NO ONE could come up with a more satisfying ending, it’s absolute perfection!

Dirty Little Secrets is everything a psychological thriller should be and more! Very highly recommended

Dirty Little Secrets is out now!!

Massive thanks to Quercus Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read an eARC for free in exchange for an honest and unbiassed review

I discovered Jo Spain through her Tom Reynolds series which I love so when I heard about this new book I was intrigued and excited. This is a stand alone so you don’t have to have read any of the others other books first.

This story questions how much we really know about our neighbours. People move in next door to us and we may talk but what do we really know about them, what secrets are they hiding?

Olive Collins lives in Withered Vale before the other houses are built and the gated community created. The story is told from her thoughts and memories about people who have and still live there, what they are like and her efforts to build a community within the gates. At the beginning of the book she is found dead and as the investigation into her death progresses we learn about the other residents of the neighbouring homes.

This is a skillfully woven story which keeps you wondering all the way through until the resolution which I admit I didn’t see coming. We learn about the other residents through their reactions to the police investigation and their comments about each other but also through the eyes of the police, the outsiders who bring a fresh perspective to the area, almost like opening a window and letting air into a stuffy room. Throughout this all we get Olive’s voice, almost as if she is still there and providing her own commentary on the neighbours. It’s brilliantly done and perfectly plotted. I’ve admitted I didn’t see the resolution coming but when it did it fitted in perfectly and everything slotted into place like the final piece of a jigsaw.

If you’ve never read any of Jo Spain’s books before this would be an ideal one to start with, it’s a refreshingly original read in the psychological thriller genre.

I enjoyed this novel. A bit different to the norm thriller. A nice paced book. Plenty of secrets to reveal. Good partnership developing between dectectives. I would definitely read another offering from this author. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

This is the second book I’ve read by this author and I will definitely be looking out for more. It’s a stand-alone domestic suspense novel with a fascinating cast of characters, like an Irish Liane Moriarty. The plot pulled me in straight away and I had no idea where it was going until the final reveal.

Olive Collins, a meddling middle-aged spinster living in an exclusive gated community, has been found dead, but what shocks her neighbours the most is that no one missed her for three months. As the story unfolds from the perspective of various characters including Olive herself, from beyond the grave, we discover that pretty much all of them had reason to want her dead, so it’s up to a mismatched detective duo to sift through the secrets and lies, but will they get to the truth when everyone has something to hide?

I really enjoy this author’s writing style, with her wry observations and dry humour. It’s recognisably Irish without overdoing it - the plot could actually be set anywhere and is actually completely believable. I liked the evolving dynamic between Frank and Emma, as well as the friendships born between neighbours as a result of all the unexpected revelations. Olive was wonderfully awful and there are plenty of red herrings and reason to suspect everyone, but the ending didn’t disappoint at all. Highly recommended.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.
Dirty Little Secrets is available now.

In a rather privileged gated estate called Withered Vale,a woman's body is found in her cottage. Apparently she has been dead for three months and nobody of this small estate noticed anything. So Detective Frank Brazil and Detective Emma Child start their investigation into the death of Olive,one of the first inhabitants of this small community even before it became the living space for six more or less affluent families(singles,couples and families with children). Very quickly both detectives realise that all of the inhabitants have small(large and big)secrets and that kind Olive was perhaps no so kind and treasured as some would like them to believe. Each of these secrets are important on different levels but they do lead to weakened positions and uncomfortable situations. But the questions remains,who killed Olive?
Every chapter is told by a different inhabitant (including the deceased Olive) and it works perfectly,it keeps you guessing who the culprit is (as the whole lot are basically suspects) and the ending is definitely a surprise.
A very good mystery with strong and well developed characters,two very likeable detectives, Frank,close to his retirement and Emma ,an ambitious young wolf.
Just sorry to hear that Frank is retiring...

Dirty Little Secret, bestselling writer Jo Spain's new standalone psychological thriller, is hardly an original concept; after all, it's based on the secrets of a small, affluent gated community in and around the area of Wicklow, Ireland. When elderly Olive Collins's decomposing body is found the police are at a loss as to who would want her dead; a lonely, innocent old lady causing no harm to anyone or was she? Things are not as they seem, and the police soon realise Olive was rather spiky and revelled in being a troublemaker. As the secrets begin to unravel it appears that just about everyone living in the development had a motive to kill Olive.

Police have their work cut out, not for the usual reason of too few suspects, but the exact opposite; there are too many here. As with Spain's other books the writing just flows beautifully and getting into the story is so, so easy. Once you're in, those pages just keep a turning more and more frenetically to find out who the perpetrator is. The fast pace, well drawn and interesting characters and how intensely gripping and absorbing the plot was made this a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining read. This is a suspenseful, tense and refreshing take on well-used tropes of the genre.

Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

This book was brilliant, twists and surprises....lots of buried secrets that are going to come out!! I love a book where I have no clue what's going ro happen and this did that for me....there is dark humour and some emotional bits, everything that I would imagine living in a community like this would be. I wasn't overly fond of any of the characters, but that only added to the mystery. A well written thriller, ahort chapters make it easy to say "just one more" and I was hooked from the start!! Absolutely well worth picking up and I'm looking forward to more from Jo

Dirty Little Secrets is an excellent example of how to write a psychological thriller. I remember being totally gripped by Jo Spain’s previous novel The Confession last year, so I jumped at the chance to read her second and I dived into it straight away, and Jo Spain has delivered another corker of a read. Told from the perspectives of residents within a tight-knit community it makes for an utterly compulsive read that I could not put down.

The gated community known as Withered Vale is a collection of exclusive properties for the very wealthy. At the beginning of the book, one of the residents, Olive Collins, is found dead, but here’s the thing, her body was left rotting away in her house for three months before it was discovered. How could anyone not have checked on her in all that time, or realised that something was wrong? Already I could feel the tension as I wondered which of the neighbours knew something about Olive’s death and if any of them had played a part in it.

This book really will make you examine your own neighbours just that little more closely. Within such a small, tight-knit space there are some very different characters, who all have their own sets of problems. And it becomes very clear that none of them were particularly keen on Olive. So was one of them responsible for her death?

Jo Spain gets to know the psychology of her character’s really well, as I was reading I had suspicions of just about all of them. We also get to hear from Olive’s perspective, I found this unusual at first, because at this point, she is already dead, but as I got into the story, I thought it worked really well. We often don’t get to hear from the perspectives of victim’s in crime novels, so this is what made Dirty Little Secrets a really interesting read. I’m sure Olive is a character who will provoke strong opinions among readers.

This is an excellent, character-driven novel that I am a big, big fan of. Jo Spain has leapt onto my list of must-read authors. She creates a real sense that everyone in this book is hiding something and I just had to know what the truth was.