I feel conflicted about Little Deadly Secrets - which is really too bad, because it could have been a great thriller taking on a very contentious subject. But instead of really focusing on the idea of consent, sexual assault and rape, and how it impacts the lives of three college friends in their adult lives, the story has a tendency to go off the rails at multiple points. If it had stuck to the above and murder it could have been both engrossing and thought provoking. Instead it throws in ballooning credit card debt, infidelity, stalking, possible child abduction, drug abuse and inconsistent character development to try and balance a plot that struggles to stay to it's strong points. It's a whole plethora of trigger warnings. Mackenzie is married to a domineering man that belittles her as helpless - but she tells her daughter Aria that everything is fine. After suffering a trauma in college, Robin rebounds with what appears to be a perfect marriage and family, but there's plenty of deception going on. Lily is single after her husband is unable to stay in a relationship with her after she struggles to recover from a car accident. Admittedly, it feels like this story is mostly between Mackenzie, Robin and their families and Lily is just thrown in to create another plot complication that neither creates much interest or deflects suspicion away from the main gist of the story. This story was okay, but in my mind it would have been a lot better if the story had been streamlined and the character development had been more consistent.

I found the book to be well written and easy to read. I like how the author showed each character's events separately. I also like how the author gave a surprise ending, one that was opposite, but similar, to what is shown in the first chapter.
I found the book boring to read. However, there was enough intrigue to move on to discover the truth.

A book I could not put down kept me up reading way too late.Three college best friends now living their lives.Women still closer then close but their are secrets hidden secrets that they each have.this is so well written so involving highly recommend.#netgalley#harpercolins

Unputdownable! If you liked Big Little Lies you will love this fast paced story of friendship, betrayal, and suspense!!!!!

5* Secret & Lie Stars

This was my first read by Pamela Crane and what an incredible whirlwind of a read it was!

Lily, Robin and Mackenzie met at college and became fast friends. As their lives evolve their friendship remains true and strong until one little secret creates a tsunami of secrets and lies that have been harboured for years by the three friends and their loved ones.

It was very well written, and the story flowed so well that before you knew it you were at the end of another chapter. The twists and turns that sneaked up were thrilling and surprising. Their story also touched on subjects like rape, abuse and drug addiction which were all pivotal to the story of the three friends.

I highly recommend this fantastic domestic thriller fraught with secrets and lies and just when you thought there were no more to be discovered, another one presents itself!

Wow wow wow,
I received this book yesterday through a group I have a scene of the crime....
And I feel honored to be able to read this author's Work. it was a first and I absolutely loved it once I picked it up it's one of those books that pulls you in from the first page and you just can't put it down.... the things she do with that 🔪


At the End of This Book the author says thank you for reading my book I know you'd rather be reading Stephen King's books but I can honestly say no I would not this book is far more interesting than Stephen King books for me so for that thank you your book is a hundred percent better in my eyes..

Best friends till the end each having their own secrets knowing each other secrets and keeping them until the very end that's what bestfriends do even if it's deadly secrets..

Past mistakes come to life in this book that involved everyone..

Affairs happen between best friends and spouses but the dark things are the worst..

Things that happened 20 years ago will come to light..

This was a good book I truly liked This Book

Thank you Pamela Crane for such a wonderful story..
Thank you netgally
For allowing me to read this early....

I started this with a lot of promise: friendships, marriages, and deadly secrets? Sign me up, especially after a riveting first chapter in which a wife kills her husband. Who is it, and what drove her to that point?

But after more than 30% in, I have to put this down. I just can’t get through anymore.

Books don’t have to be uplifting. They can be bleak, and illustrate everything that’s wrong in the world. But this one just doesn’t work for me. The dialogue is stilted (I’m sorry, but your husband just pointed a gun at you, is threatening to blow a kid’s brain out for allegedly raping your daughter and is implying said kid is also molesting his sister and your line is “hold your horses, honey”? ) and overly preachy and this cast is just so top to bottom awful that I don’t want to continue. If there’s a redeeming message coming, I’m just not up for the wait because there’s no break from everyone’s wretched and criminal behavior. I love a good mystery/thriller; but at least give me a character I can connect to.

Thank you to William Morrow through the Scene of the Crime book club for providing this review copy.

This book got better as it went along but it didn't really live up to the hype for me. Three friends all share secrets and have some they're keeping from each other. The three women are all very one-dimensional stereotypes, almost like the author made a part of herself into each woman. There's the lusty Italian with a prescription drug addiction, the Southern good-girl being abused by her husband, and the frazzled doctor's wife who's too busy mothering her four kids and wracking up credit card debt to keep her husband from straying. They've all been friends since college and a series of bad events wrap them all up in new drama and drama from their past comes back to bite them. There's a bit of a mystery and it starts out with one of them killing her husband (we don't know which but it's not really hard to guess), but the way that's resolved is a little cringe-worthy in its unbelievability (okay, that's not a word but it should be with regards to mystery and suspense novels). All in all it was good for me but not great.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.

Three friends all have secrets that are coming to light in this thriller that is at the same time, a look at female friendships. One has a controlling husband, one is finding their husband growing distant and one is looking to have a fling with one of their husbands. When at a party, the son of one of the women is found on top of the daughter of the other, all of their friendships seem strained to a breaking point. And that is when secrets start coming to light, gloves start coming off and a murder is on the horizon. This is an interesting mix of thriller and women's fiction that will give readers a lot to think about.

Loved this domestic thriller by the amazing Pamela Crane. The book explores the many layers of family ties and lies. How just one little secret can be a game changer. The two decade bonds that the women have developed through thick and thin. But again, what would it take to unravel us from the inside out? So many twists and turns that sneak up on the reader time and time again.
Highly recommend.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Mackenzie, Robin, and Lily three best friends each with secrets that are about to be exposed. With friends like these... A good train wreck of a story that kept my interest from beginning to end.

Three best friends, double that secrets, a delightful dose of unpredictability, and consistently fast moving plot. Great for fans of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies and The Husband's Secret and I would highly recommend to our library's patrons. And with the alternating narrator, it would be fantastic on audio. I devoured it in one sitting.

Are you looking for a fast paced domestic thriller? Did you enjoy Big Little Lies? If you said yes to these questions then you need to add Little Deadly Secrets to your TBR list! From the very first chapter I was sucked into the lives of Lily, Mac, and Robin. They have been best friends since college and have many secrets that start to come out; affairs, rape, murder, etc. Read this book to discover the secrets and lies these three friends share.

Wow! My back hurts and my legs turned into jellies, eyes are red, semi-closed, hands are shaky- I didn’t count how many cups of black coffee I consumed after sitting at the same position at least 6 hours. I couldn’t move, I didn’t take bathroom breaks and now I’m begging my husband to carry me to there because if I take more steps I may have some kind of most humiliating bladder accident. Yes, this is occupational hazard of reading something so captivated and unputdownable, isn’t it?

This is whirlwind, twisty, reality questioning, exhausting and truly smart, exciting reading. Three protagonists are flawed, keeping secrets, having obsessions, bitchy, irritating parts but you eventually start to like them because you may empathize with their damaged parts and tolerate to their weaknesses.

Mackenzie seems like living a fairy-tale with a wealthy, charming husband who adores her and a beautiful 15 years old daughter Aria. But sometimes love can be suffocating especially when you’re married with some narcissistic, controlling, manipulative man who suffers from anger management issues, hiding lethally dangerous secrets. And what about her daughter: she caught her at the basement of her best friend Robin’s basement with Robin’s 18 years old son Ryan. Why were they doing? Did they have sex? Was it consensual or did Ryan drugged her daughter to take advantage of her?

Robin seems like happy, married with gorgeous Grant, three kids. But why she is hiding the credit card statements from her husband and why her husband lies about his whereabouts lately. When Robin has the biggest argument with Mackanzie about their kids and the inappropriate situation she found them into, why she told her the apple didn’t fall from the tree when she’s talking about Ryan? Could their nearly two decades long friendship end with Mackenzie’s suspicions about Robin’s son?

And Lily seems like negotiator, bringing out the peace as she’s struggling to gather the crumbling pieces of her life. She is nonstop drinking, popping up pills and hiding her addiction problem, acting like normal and thankful that she doesn’t deal with a husband ( They are separated) and kids like their friends do. But she also deals with the biggest secret: she truly knows whereabout of Robin’s husband Grant as he lies to his wife that he’s going to a poker game.

Too many lies, too many secrets, rape, abuse, violence, betrayal, addiction, drugs, dark pasts take your attention and you became addicted this story. The author perfectly builds the high tension and as the characters’ start to spill out their secrets, the direction of the story approaches to the dead end.
I
’m so pleased about the conclusion, the way the characters evolved and faced the consequences of their wrongdoings and taking responsibilities about their mistakes to change their lives and the closure they get was fair and acceptable.

I’m rounding up 4.5 stars rounding up to 5 and I truly recommend this book to the genre lovers. I already started to add the previous works of the author to my terrifyingly long TBR which gave me dizziness when I raise my head to look at the top point.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins /William Morrow Paperbacks for sharing this intriguing ARC with me in exchange my honest review.

Wow, I could not put this book down! Little Deadly Secrets is a domestic thriller that will shock you at every turn! I found the multilayered storyline riveting and very thought-provoking—every character is going through their own person challenges and none of them are minor issues. The pacing is perfect, I literally flew through this book in only a day because I HAD to see how everything would end! Little Deadly Secrets is a solid 5 star book that I highly recommend! I can’t believe this is the first book I’ve read from Pamela Crane, I am so excited to read more from her in the future!

This book will hit home with anyone who has navigated the complicated nature of adult friendships, marriage, and parenting. We have three women who have grown up together, but when it comes to their children and a mistake made one night, the frailty of friendship begins to crack. Parenthood comes first, then friendship, But what happens when the stakes are raised and that mistake could put one of their children in jail--and maybe rightfully so? The book delves deep into some controversial topics that make you think, and it's written beautifully and powerfully.

The family drama, the secrets, the twist ending, and a dash of murder...this book has it all. It's a perfect fit for those who love domestic thrillers with a fast-moving plot. A gut-wrenching, compelling read that tackles some big questions, but ends with a satisfying conclusion (and one you won't expect).