Our Little Secrets hooked me from the beginning. A great captivating story.

At Police Scotland HQ, Grace Macallan has pitched up in Counter Corruption, but the demons of her past are never far behind. Edinburgh's gangland is in turmoil, as new upstarts challenge the old criminal order.

Up steps DI Janet Hadden. Ambitious, hardbitten, and addicted to risk-taking, she knows how to throw opponents off balance.

But when she’s thwarted, Hadden seeks help from a notorious underworld fixer. Beset by violence and double-crossing, Grace is soon embroiled in a game of cat and mouse with colleagues and criminals.

There are times when books grab certain readers and leave others behind. An author can craft a great series and yet one book sticks out as a sore thumb, leaving many to praise the collection while perhaps wincing at a single book buried in the series. I tried twice to get into this book, making it into double digit completion percentages, but I could not find any connection to the characters or the plot. With so many books to read and little time to waste on those who are not able to captivate me, I will leave Peter Ritchie to his adoring fans and those who find something herein that excites them. I choose not even to try summarising what I did read, as it was all nonsensical and I prefer not to skew those who want to go in with a fresh look at what could be an interesting Scottish police procedural.

Kudos, Mr. Ritchie, for making it five books (apparently) into this series. I’ll leave it to others to laud you with praise.

Based on it's description, Our Little Secrets is my kind of read. Gritty police procedural set in the UK with a female lead? Sign me up.

Unfortunately this one did not work for me. I could not connect to the characters or their world. There was a lot of description and not enough action or emotion. I found the story hard to follow. While I know the slang was depicting the gangster world and UK vs. North American uses are different, I did find some of it jarring (and I read a lot of UK based-books and family is all from there). As a new reader to the series, I was unfamiliar with the backstory (and that's totally on me!) and was disappointed with the limited presence of the billed lead, Grace Macallan.

This is just my opinion and I know many others loved it.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for the eARC.

“Our Little Secrets” has all the hallmarks of a meaty crime thriller, yet falls flat. I found it strangely uninvolving, with too much observation and not enough involvement.

The main problem for me with this novel is that the narrator tells us a lot about what is going on and what characters are thinking and feeling, but we as readers rarely feel involved in it. We’re at a distance, being told things, not seeing them happen. This rather dry style left me feeling very distanced from both the characters and action.

The characters, too, seemed quite distant. While we were told that they felt some pretty tumultuous emotions, I didn’t feel it on a visceral level. Again, the narration style left me feeling distanced, rather than involved.

This is tagged as “a Grace Macallan novel”. I found this a little puzzling as the character barely appears in the novel. However, it may explain some of the problems I had with the novel – I haven’t read anything from this writer previously, and it may be that it is stronger for readers who’ve been following the series.

The novel focuses primarily, but not exclusively, on the antics of Janet Hadden and Dominic Grainger. Janet is a bent cop, interested primarily in her own career advancement and in having power over others. Dominic is a gangster, running guns and drugs, and not hesitating to use a solid bit of violence to get what he wants. Janet wants to use Dominic as an informer; Dominic hopes to use her to eliminate some rivals.

This being quite a dark crime thriller, it probably won’t come as any surprise if I tell you that things don’t go as either of them planned, and a great deal of mayhem results.

Plot wise I admired this. It’s tightly plotted, twisted, and yet quite believable. Plot points are a mix of the foreseeable – which come across less as predictable than as horribly inevitable – and unexpected.
However, I didn’t really engage with any of the characters. I felt I was being told about what kind of person each was, but never had the chance to emotionally engage with any of them. There was too much telling, and not enough showing or involving. I experienced the same problem with the action – I felt I was observing it from a distance, not involved, not caring.

As noted, it may be that regular readers will enjoy this more. Perhaps other novels in the series aren’t so distancing; perhaps some characters have had bigger roles, so that the reader can get to know them better.

For me this was a novel that succeeded intellectually, but wasn’t a great reading experience. The plot was clever, and the characters should have been engaging. However, the style left me feeling at arms’ length, and I simply couldn’t care much about either the characters or action.

At a dark place in Edinburgh's heart, secrets refues to lie dormant.

At Police Scotland HQ, Grace Macallan has pitched up in Counter Corruption. But the demons of her past are never far behind.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh's gangland is in turmoil. As a new breed of upstarts challenges the old criminal order, their battle for territory causes serious havoc.

Good Scottish detective story etting down and dirty with gangland of Glasgow and Edinburgh. All seems to be going to plan for the detective but a twist will change everything forever. Great novel and puts reader in heart of gangland culture and lives.

The book starts with a bang - Tonto, a drug dealer working for the criminal Grainger brothers, is chased by a customer, with an axe. The story then rewinds a few weeks to introduce the main characters.

DI Janet Hadden is a ruthless and corrupt character who feels unfairly overlooked during promotions and is set on making her own luck.
Dominic Grainger runs a criminal empire with his brothers, but is mostly busy drinking, gambling and keeping both from his brothers while trying to maximise profits. When Dominic’s wife, who just happens to be the daughter of powerful ex-kingpin Big Arthur, is found murdered, this adds another problem.
Suspecting that Dominic killed his wife, Big Arthur employs Mason, a private investigator, to find proof. But in the underworld everyone has ulterior movies and soon more characters join the complex and intricate plot, and the scheming, colluding and manipulating.

DI Grace McCallan is not central to the book, which was a bit of a surprise, since the series is named after her. It is only in the last third of the book that Grace investigates the case and is reunited with her old team. The team interactions allude to previous cases and a common history.
This was my first book of this series, however I did not feel that I needed to have read any of the previous books, as the plot is understandable without prior knowledge of DI McCallan and her cases.

I absolutely love Edinburgh and have only fond memories of my visits, so I was happy to read a gritty Scottish thriller set in Edinburgh. I liked the complexity of the plot and enjoyed trying to figure out what would happen next.

WoW what a Superb book Our Little Secrets by Peter Ritchie was. It did take a while for me to get into it as I am usually hooked within the first few pages of a book. But I loved it. I found it had lots of twists and turns and even dark in place which ended a hit for me! Then, I found it was the fifth book in the Superintendent Grace Macallan series. So, I will be going back to read the other four books when I get a few spare days.

Big thank you to the author Peter Ritchie, NetGalley and Black And White Publishing for an ARC of Our Little Secrets in exchange for an honest review.

I'm sad to say, I didn't finish this book. In fact, I struggled with the prologue but persevered. I found that the gangster world wasn't for me and I Coulter connect with the characters or the story.

Having said that, in sure there will be many people who live this type of thing.

I struggled with this book a bit. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters. Even though I don't think they were necessarily meant to be likeable I can still "enjoy" a book if I feel invested in horrible characters but this one didn't strike me as such. I did like the way the plot strands all tied up at the end however it wasn't enough for me to feel the need to read any more of this series.

On the surface this story seemed just up my library. Unfortunately, I couldn't connect or immerse. The slang was obnoxious. I had trouble, as an indigenous person with the horrible, racist, and ironically geographically misused nickname of one of the characters, put me off immediately. The leading character was unlikable and not in a trouble-but-we-get-it way. This was probably great for others. Just not for me.

What happens when good and evil decide to do business? Not much good, as we know. In this book, grace and her colleagues feel like their case is running into dead end after dead end, when suddenly there is a clue, but it's not what they expected. Have they stumbled onto an undercover detail, or something much more sinister and harmful? Not your normal British police procedural, this book looks at what happens when ambition over rules common sense, and pride forces decisions that shouldn't be made. It's more a look at human character, and just as interesting! This one might just make you go back and read the previous 4 books in the series!

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I whizzed through this book. A gritty depiction of the Edinburgh drug crime scene. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Being a Scot who knows Edinburgh really well, I think this worked in my favour. Those who aren't Scottish or familiar with the capital may struggle to get a really good impression of what is happening (despite a very clear glossary of Scots slang at the back of the book).
I understand this is part of a series which can be read as standalone books. But the "main" character plays a really minor part in the novel so for anyone looking to read it to continue Macallan's story may be left disappointed.

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Peter Ritchie, and Black & White Publishing for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

There are times when books grab certain readers and leave others behind. An author can craft a great series and yet one book sticks out as a sore thumb, leaving many to praise the collection while perhaps wincing at a single book buried in the series. I tried twice to get into this book, making it into double digit completion percentages, but I could not find any connection to the characters or the plot. With so many books to read and little time to waste on those who are not able to captivate me, I will leave Peter Ritchie to his adoring fans and those who find something herein that excites them. I choose not even to try summarising what I did read, as it was all nonsensical and I prefer not to skew those who want to go in with a fresh look at what could be an interesting Scottish police procedural.

Kudos, Mr. Ritchie, for making it five books (apparently) into this series. I’ll leave it to others to laud you with praise.

I would like to start by thanking Netgalley and Black & White Publishing for an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review

Sadly that review won’t be very positive from me, I wanted to like this book, i love Edinburgh & I like crime thrillers normally but I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters and felt like I’d missed things and kept going back to re-read chapters. I had to put it down before finishing which I rarely do but it just didn’t hold my interest.
I did find out after that this was part of a series of books and I jumped into the middle so maybe that would make a difference.
I did enjoy the writing style of Peter Ritchie; so will find and read the first book to compare.

I found it a struggle to get into and enjoy Our Little Secrets with none of the main characters grabbing my attention or making me want to invest in them

Sorry but not a book I can recommend

I love to read about crimes and thrillers and thought this one would be up my alley. I also noticed after starting the book that it is a series with the same detective throughout.. All of the books are standalones in the series, so you should be able to jump in anywhere.
Unfortunately, this particular book seemed like it was focusing on too many characters for me to get a good feel for the plot and the storyline. There was A LOT going on. I think that was 100% intentional on the author's part. All to confuse us as readers. I wasn't fully invested and found myself not really caring about any of the characters and at times having to go back to reread parts since it just wasn't grabbing my attention. I tend to love a dirty and gripping crime drama, but this wasn't it for me.
The characters didn't have a lot of redeeming qualities and I wasn't sure where it would end up. Suffice to say, this was difficult to finish for me and I found myself skimming towards the end. That's not to say that others won't like it. I'm calling it bad timing on my part. I'm a mood reader and it just wasn't for me right now. I may go back to read it again later because I do love a good mafia with blackmail and double crossing. But it just didn't hit the right notes for me right now. With all that said, the writing was good and I'd be curious if I would be more invested in the characters had I read the previous books.

An excellent, fast paced crime thriller! Would definitely recommend. I didn't know until googling the author that this is part of a series, but this book can definitely be read as standalone.

This was an easy to read thriller thaylt kept my attention all the way through! Lots of twists and surprises I didn't see coming. Very good, would recommend!

I was a bit disappointed in this. I got to just passed 50% and my heart still wasn't it in.
I didn't feel any real pull to the characters and found myself having to re read chapters where I had zones out.
Just want for me I'm afraid.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all thoughts and opinions are my own.