I don't know how I'd react if I found out my husband may have a sixteen year old son I didn't know about. Sally went through a lot of ups and downs trying to uncover the truth about her husband. Gripping is a good word to describe this book.

I'd like to thank Netgalley for this copy given for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book on the whole, but I felt the secret could have been stronger. It was fairly gripping, and there were some good twists, but I feel it could have been better.

The Secrets He Kept By Jackie Walsh was Just Brilliant throughout. This book is full of suspense, with lots of twist and turns throughout that will have you gripped from the very beginning of this new gripping psychological thriller and has a brilliant nail-biting ending.

Sally, is 37 and is a loving wife to her husband Tom and they have a 15 year old daughter called Amber, a set of twins called Cian and Aaron who are three years old. Sally has a job she loves in the local salon as a stylist and juggles her home life with her job.
Sally goes to work, it's a normal day in the Salon............Until someone who came off the streets without an appointment for a quick blow dry etc for an important event that evening, she wants to look nice for her boyfriend tonight.
Whilst Sally is talking to this young girl, she shows her an innocent family photo on her phone. Innocent it may be, but Sally World comes crashing round her, the person in the photo is her husband she loves with his arm around another young lad. This causes Sally to collapse in shock.

Before Sally could ask the young girl more about the photo the young girl has left the salon. Confused and Shocked Sally doesn't know what to do.

What is her Husband Tom hiding?

Has he got a double life? How does he fit it in with work, home life etc?

Who is the Young lad? He must be the roughly the same age as their daughter Amber!

Is it Tom's son?

OMG! You will need to read this book.

I highly recommend this Brilliant book. The ending will have you shocked.

Big Thank you to JackieWalsh, NetGalley and HeraBooks for an ARC of The Secrets He Kept in exchange for an honest review.

Sally works as a hairdresser, where she meets all kinds of different people, like the homeless woman who sits outside her shop, Elise. When one of Sally's clients shows her a picture of her boyfriend and his father Sally's world is blow apart. Because the father is also Sally's husband....so erm, wtf?

So Sally's husband Tom has been hiding secrets, and hence the book addresses the impossible dilemma - should she confront Tom to find out the truth? Or should she play oblivious and continue forward content in her life. What would we do?

The Secrets He Kept is a fast paced thriller, mainly voiced from Sally`s point of view and is packed full of twists and turns and many of the chapters ended on a cliff-hanger which adds to the suspense. I highly recommend this book and thank the author and netgalley for the ADR in exchange for an honest review

The Secrets He Kept was a well plotted thriller that I raced through.
Sally is a hairdresser and this whole book is based around what she saw. Sally was sorting a teenage girls hair out when the girl shows her a photo of herself with her boyfriend and his dad, when sally looks she is horrified to see that the dad in the picture is her husband, Tom, but this can’t be true they have a daughter together that is around the same age as this boy. Sally convinces herself that it wasn’t Tom, it was just someone who looked like him. Sally says nothing when she gets home but it festers inside her and when she asks Tom if he has another son his answer is the start of the rollercoaster of lies she finds he has and is telling.
I enjoyed this book from beginning to end, at times I felt sorry for sally but other times I could have shaken her as in my book she let Tom get away with waaaaay to much and he would have been in the dog house for a lot longer with me with the lies he told.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Hera Books for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

This book was exactly what I expected it would be. Fast paced, gripping and just a good read.
I think most people can picture themselves in this situation. We all think we know the people we love, we trust them with everything, including our lives.
It was very confronting and really makes you think about the secrets we all keep from each other and if you can really trust someone completely.
And because it made me think about these kind of things, I find this was a really good book. And I would absolutely recommend this book to people who love this genre.

I had high expectations from The Secrets He Kept after hearing great things about Perfect Stranger earlier this year. Was I mistaken in this mindset? Hell no!!!

From the point Sally was shown the photo of Tom, I felt her life slowly begin to crumble and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Day by day, Sally was gradually losing control of her already fragile family life as circumstances change beyond her control. What can she do to keep her family together?

As the book developed, I didn’t know where I was going or who to trust within this family unit. And the heart-tightening climax for any parent to experience 😱😱😱 By the end of the book, I’d been through an emotional mill!

The Secrets He Kept is a well written very tense domestic noir that had me hooked from the moment Sally was shown that photo. I’ll be digging out Perfect Strangers from mount TBR before long!

WOW! This was one intriguing read!

I didn't know what to expect from this book, but THE SECRETS HE KEPT by Jackie Walsh was so fast paced it had me gripped from the beginning till the very end. Believe me, this one will keep you guessing until very final page.

What if your husband had a secret so huge that when you discovered it, you questioned its validity as well as your husband at the same time? This is what happens to Sally Cooper while at work one day. She thought she had a good life, happily married to Tom with three wonderful children - 15 year old Amber and 3 year old twin boys, Cian and Aaron. But Tom has already let her down before...when he invested £16,000 of her hard earned money into a "sure-fire" scheme that not only lost the lot, but left them owing money to the debtor Tom also took loans out with. So Sally, who would rather have been at home with her twin boys, went back out to work as a hairdresser to pay the debts and make ends meet.

Sally is at work one morning when a walk-in requests a shampoo and style for her boyfriend's party that night. The teenager flicking through her phone as Sally works shows her a photo of her boyfriend Kenny. But Sally isn't looking at Kenny. She is staring at the man beside him with his arm around the teenaged boy...her husband Tom. The girl tells her it is Kenny's dad. His dad?? But Tom doesn't have a teenage son...does he?

In shock, Sally collapses and wakes in the staffroom to her concerned colleagues. She assures them she's fine and that she must finish Charlie's hair. But Charlie, the teenage girl, has gone...and along with her any answers to Sally's questions.

Suddenly, Sally's life begins to shatter as she begins to question everything about her husband of 16 years and just how well she knows him. The words fall out of her mouth before she can stop them as she asks Tom if he has a son. His answer? Vague in many ways, but the inference was there - no. But then Sally starts to see her husband in a different light. She hears him on the phone in the middle of the night. And then he fails to show for their twin boys' 3rd birthday party, claiming the excuse of helping a friend out whose car broke down. But Sally isn't so sure. How many secrets is Tom keeping from her?

The next day the talk in the salon is about the murder in Sycamore Gardens, an estate close by. Sally pays little attention to it, too busy mulling over the secrets her husband could be keeping. Until one night Tom hits her with a bombshell. He has a son. His mother has just been murdered and as his only living relative and next of kin, Kenny is to come and live with them. That murder in the news...Kenny's mum. No, no, no...Sally screams. He is NOT living there! They know nothing about him and they have a 15 year old daughter to consider. On the one hand Tom agrees with her but then she discovers he also agrees with the social worker - Kenny is to come and live with them. Whose side is Tom on? And what else is he hiding?

As Sally's life begins to implode with the arrival of the polite but guarded Kenny, the moody outbursts from Amber and the realisation that one of her boys is not developing as well as his brother. Not to mention the fact that her husband is being more than economical with the truth. Her one place of solace is work. So when the girls at the salon are all talking about the murder with their thoughts that maybe the boy's father did it, Sally remains tight-lipped. All the while she continues to question Tom's actions, his lies and deceit, and wonders the possibility herself.

As the lies increase, so does the tension making this one intense and unputdownable book. There are surprises with nearly every page as the reader attempts to guess where everything might lead.

I didn't much like Tom, and his loose relationship with the truth, as I didn't see why all the big secrecy around something that could have been properly addressed at the time. And yet, he continued to tell only half-truths...even when caught out. I liked Sally, surprisingly, as female leads tend to annoy me despite my love of this genre. As the reader, you feel almost sorry for the predicament she finds herself in through no fault of her own...but her sorry excuse for a husband. I love how she isn't the strong storming heroine type, but just your regular woman next door, trying to keep her family together through an incredibly difficult situation. I was suitably impressed with Amber...for a 15 year old, she was just the right mix of moody and considerate. The twins? Everyone goes all gooey over children...but I don't. So I could well do without them. As for the many other characters? They were a great mix that added the perfect amount of friendship and tension where needed.

My favourite part of the book was the Epilogue. It was epic. It was so well done and so very clever, it was the best ending I have encountered. The progression of the story left you wondering where it was all going to end that the conclusion, when it came, was suitably shocking to say the least. But the best, by far.

A well-written psychological drama, that is not really a thriller as such, THE SECRETS HE KEPT is filled with tension, suspense and plenty of secrets and lies to keep you guessing and turning the pages.

Prepare to stay up well into the night with this one as THE SECRETS HE KEPT will have your adrenaline going with every twist, every secret, every page, every chapter...that you will be riveted to the very end.

A masterful tale that is incredibly well-crafted, THE SECRETS HE KEPT is a fantastic compelling read that will have you suitably intrigued as every secret is slowly unveiled until that shocking conclusion. Highly recommend!!

I would like to thank #JackieWalsh, #NetGalley and #HeraBooks for an ARC of #TheSecretsHeKept in exchange for an honest review.

The Secrets He Kept by Jackie Walsh is a wonderful psychological thriller.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Hera Books, and the author for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this novel. This review was written voluntarily.

Sally Cooper, happily married to Tom, has a dream life. They have three contented and lovely children - twin three-year-old boys, named Cian and Aaron and a fifteen-year-old daughter, Amber. One day, at the hairdressers where Sally works as a stylist, her first client shows her a family photograph; one that causes Sally to collapse in shock. In one abominable instant, Sally discovers that Tom has been hiding an explosive secret – one that could tear apart the life they’ve built together. So, faced with an impossible dilemma - search for the truth, or keep her contented life – which will Sally choose? She is about to discover that even those closest to us have secrets, and that sometimes the truth is the last thing anyone wants to hear.

The characters in this story are perfect blend of likeable and detestable. I really bonded with Sally and could feel her anguish when she realised the guy she held on in such high esteem throughout their marriage, was not the man she thought him to be. I did not care for the character of Tom, but this did not affect my enjoyment of the story, as he had a great part to play.

I appreciated the easy writing style of Jackie Walsh and her ability to catch my attention right from the start of the novel. With an expertly built and gradually intensifying level of apprehension throughout, the author then cleverly added another dimension as she steered the story in a more sinister direction. This hauntingly devastating tale of betrayal and secrecy was expertly delivered, bringing with it no let-downs, and everything was well-wrapped up in the satisfying and fulfilling finale.

A riveting, stellar psychological thriller that I'm delighted to recommend.

The Secrets He Kept held my attention and kept me interested throughout. At times it felt like there were too many twists, almost a "but wait, there's more" feel. The plot was really good, but many of the characters lacked depth, with the reader only really getting to know the main character thoroughly, in my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed it but I think it was too long. The story was gripping and I read it pretty fast but I feel like it could have been wrapped up 3 quarters of the way through.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hera books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Read this one in one sitting. Was a good solid read. Glad I got approved to read it.
Wow what an intense and suspenseful read! The Secrets He Kept grabs you right from the start and doesn’t let go till the final page, where it all wraps up with an ending that you don't expect. I still get chills when I think about it. It is addictive, thrilling with twists and turns that keep you second guessing everything, which are the perfect ingredients for a great psychological thriller. Loved it

This is the first book that I have read by Jackie and it won’t be my last. Wow what a well written, gripping and hard-hitting read.

Twists and turns within every page turn, I will be looking at Jackie’s other books and will definitely keep an eye open for future books.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I liked the plot, well written and really gripping.

This was a well-written, gripping thriller that was hard to put down. The characters are well rounded and there are twists throughout. I found it was difficult to ever get comfortable trusting what anyone was saying or their motivations as more and more secrets came out.

Really thrilling read & creepy! Had me completely hooked. Did find the story somewhat lacking in parts but all in all I couldn’t put it down!

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I really enjoyed this book and was totally gripped from the beginning. This was full of suspense. A worthy 4 stars

Chilling in places! The hook of this book made me request it, and I was glad I did. Fast paced, with plenty of twists and turns. It fooled me! Thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will definitely read more.

I quite liked this book but felt it was a bit awkwardly written and the story fell a bit flat for me. Thank you for having me on the blog tour, though!

Tom and Sally Cooper have twin sons, Aaron and Cian, age 3, and a 15-year-old daughter, Amber. Sally is a hairdresser and works several days a week. One day, a client of Sally’s shows her a picture of her boyfriend’s dad. It’s Tom. Sally is shocked and cannot wait to get home to confront Tom.

Sally is already aggravated at Tom for investing their funds, plus money she had saved to open her own salon, in a business that ended up failing. When Sally confronts Tom, he claims that it isn’t true - he doesn’t have another child. But, Sally soon learns that it is true.

It turns out that Tom is the biological father of Kenny whose mother has just been murdered. Kenny has no other family so it now falls to Tom and Sally to provide a home for him. Sally is livid and does not want the boy in her home. Yet, other things occur that make them think that more danger is out there and is targeted at them.

This story had good promise but there were too many things that made it appear forced. For one, Sally appears to be totally selfish and Tom, while being a loving father, seems to lack maturity. The events that wrapped up this story seemed to be somewhat contrived to find an ending. I simply was left unimpressed.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.