Who murdered Frank the morning after his wedding? That's the crime Detective Jones must solve in this mystery set on an island in 1970. Frank's bride Catherine didn't do it- or did she? No spoilers from me but know that this is one where you likely will figure things out before Jones does. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Over to others.

The Secrets of Good People by Boo Walker and Peggy Shainberg is a compelling novel that explores family, morality, and the hidden truths we keep. The characters feel real and complex, and the story unfolds with just the right mix of drama and emotion. The writing is engaging, though some plot points are a bit predictable. Still, the heartfelt moments and strong character development make it a worthwhile read. A solid 4 stars—thought-provoking, emotional.

I really wanted to love this book because of the Clue vibes it gave me. However, it just took so long. I think the book could have been shorter. I felt it was wordy for what it was and would make a great short story or novella.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this arc.

In her late thirties, Catherine grew up in foster homes and has never felt loved. She works in Chicago as a medical illustrator (she does the drawings in textbooks and sometimes for autopsies). She's sitting in her booth one day at a medical conference when she meets Dr. Frank Overlook who happens to be writing a medical textbook. It's over a year later when Catherine meets Frank again, but this time he's come to get to know her and persuade her to marry him. After a whirlwind two-week romance, they marry in the morning and then fly to Florida where Frank has accepted a new job working with his old medical school friend, Dr. Sandy Westerling.

When the newlyweds arrive on Osprey Island in February 1970, they are immediately whisked away to a welcome party with just the inhabitants of the island. At the party Catherine has too much champagne, but Frank stays apart from the crowd and acts sullen all night. In the morning Catherine wakes up and realizes that Frank never came to bed. Embarrassed at her own over-indulgence on her wedding night, she prepares a quick breakfast for them both and calls to Frank from the back porch, assuming he's gone fishing. Instead, she hears a scream from the water where one of the local residents she met last night has just discovered a body. Dr. Frank Overlook is dead and everyone on the island, including his new bride, are suspects. Detective Quentin Jones from the mainland is called in to investigate.

The mystery itself is compelling and the cast of characters is diverse and intriguing. Still, the middle of the book dragged for me. It started strong, then lagged, then came back strong at the end. I enjoyed the twist, which I did not see coming. I was annoyed in the middle by Jones because the only way the reader knew he was a good detective is because he kept telling everyone so. I really saw no evidence of that throughout the book. His one important quality as a detective was persistence.

The other characters were mostly sympathetic, except David Arnett, but he wasn't supposed to be. I found myself enjoying Catherine's character development, but being annoyed by how long it was taking for the huge amounts of secrets the island inhabitants had to be revealed.

The book could have been a bit shorter, there were several side characters from the mainland that were pointless to include. It felt a bit like Agatha Christie in that the reader was amassing the clues along with the detective.

Overall, it was a fun mystery and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction or police procedurals.

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union for giving me the opportunity to read this book before being published. I first want to say that I love Boo Walkers writing style, but this book fell short for me. I think I’m not a fan of his mystery type books, rather than his other work. I enjoyed all the POV’s for who-done-it and learning each characters personality, but quite honestly as a mystery-suspense type book, I expect to be engaged the whole time and to stay excited. I was honestly bored, and I hate that I felt that way.

2,5 stars, because it's not a bad book per se, it's just so overstretched, this could be a 100-pages novella.
The story is super slow, it's like watching custard forming drops and eventually dripping sometime next week. The feeling of the island that you get is not that of a paradise, but of people who pretend to be nice, whereas none of them is nice. And finally, Detective Jones keeps saying that he is really good at his job and he will find the killer, it's just a matter of time. Well, truth to be told, he is not good. He is the most passive and characterless detective in the history. He does nothing, has no information whatsoever, talks a lot, smokes a lot, and nothing happens, literally. We see two events that push the story forward in the entire book! The first is at the beginning, and the next happens at exactly 50%. Then there's nothing happening, just a lot of meaningless text, and then Mr. Jones out of the blue figures out the mystery. The end.

This book by Boo Walker is a story he wrote by tweaking and finishing a book started by Peggy Shainberg, their deceased Mom. Her daughters asked him to co-write and finish her book.
Although not Boo's usual style, this who done it set in the 70's west coast of Florida was a very enjoyable read. On this small island off the coast of Florida, Frank and Catherine move down immediately after they get married. Frank is going to join the medical practice of his med school friend. On arrival they attend a welcome party given by Sandy so they can meet the others who live on this small island.
Upon walking, everything changes as Frank is found murdered on the beach. Catherine has no memory past walking back towards the house with Frank. She admits not being a drinker and being quite tipsy on all the champagne toasts.
She does not remember going to bed. When she wakes Franks, the side of the bed is unslept in...
Frank is nowhere to be found.
Shortly after that, a dead body is discovered on the beach.
What happened and why???
Read it and find out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC of The Secrets of Good People by Boo Walker and Peggy Shainberg.

I have to say, I held higher hopes for this one a so really enjoyed The Singing Tree by Boo Walker. However, this one didn’t quite hold my attention quite as well. Detective Jones who I would label as the main character, I found even that tough as really the story centered around Dr Frank Overbrook, but without spoiling the story let’s just say the detective played a bigger role. And the doctor’s wife who you thought would have played more of a role really didn’t. There were a lot of characters, which I find hard to follow if not well done. The other piece that I struggled with was the slow start to the book. What helped bring my rating up, is the end did pick up and there was a bit of a twist that I didn’t expect. If you don’t mind books that are a bit slower with a number of characters this one is for you!!

Murder mystery with a ton of suspects. I enjoyed the writing style and the vibes. For me however, this took a long time to get through, possible the mood wasn’t right for this type of book - but it felt very slow and I struggled! I will have to try again when the mood is right.

This book was started by Peggy Shainberg and was presented to Boo Walker by family members of Peggy in the hopes that he would finish the story. It was a very entertaining “Whodunnit” story set in Florida with a set of quirky cast members. I enjoyed trying to figure it out and spent an entire snow day stuck in the house reading it to see how it all played out. If you are a fan of Boo Walker, you will enjoy reading this, as this isn’t his typical genre.

Thank you to NetGalley & Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read an early eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I finished The Secrets of Good People yesterday. The characters are with me still. This is an excellent read that hooked me from page one, kept me invested all the way through the story, and left me wanting to know what happens next in their lives. The characters are richly developed. The author tells you enough about them to "see" them and understand them but also writes in such a way that you believe you know even more about them than what was written. These people could easily be people I've known in my real life, and the author nailed their good and bad points in a way that moves the story forward through the crazy plot twists. which I did not see coming.

The story is full of slice of life events elevated by its location in beautiful southern Florida and the time the story was set, the fabulous, anything was possible (we thought) '70s. And just wait until you read what Detective Jones bought for $5 and still received change back. It made me nostalgic for my '70s again.

As I've come to expect from Author Walker, The Secrets of Good People is well balanced in character, story, timing, and descriptions (just enough to paint the picture without bogging the story down with too many words).

This is a story I will read again and again and enjoy it each time.

Catherine Thomas, a medical illustrator, is swept into an unexpected, if slightly tepid, romance with Dr Frank Overbrook, who is 20 years older. An orphan and friendless, she is overjoyed when he proposes. They move to a quiet Florida village where Frank will take over the small practice of his old college classmate, retiring doctor Dr Sandy Westerling, while using the downtime to write a medical textbook.

The couple are welcomed by their new friends in the village. But on the morning after the celebratory party held in their honour, Frank is found dead. Which of their new friends would have wanted him dead?

Was it Miriam Arnett or her husband, the wheelchair-bound David, or the blind sculptor, Sylvie Nye? Or was it Dr Sandy or his nurse Glenna Greely? Or the heavily pregnant Amber and her husband, Levi, who seem to be hiding out here? Or worse, could the killer be Catherine herself? Detective Quentin Jones has his hands full solving this crime.



The book is written in the 3rd person omniscient point of view.



Jones wasn’t impressive in the least. The book is set in February 1970, so much of the investigation is understandably dependent on repeated questioning. But I never got the sense that he owned the interrogation. The manner in which he asks for permission to record conversations could have been handled better.

Also, some of the dialogues were cringe-inducing, causing Jones to come off as a prig. I don’t think that was the intended effect. The entire island showed that they didn’t care two hoots about his authority. He kept making promises to return.

The narrative voice, and even Jones’ boss, make it a point to din it into our heads that Jones is very good at his job because he thinks like a criminal, and that he has an impressive track record of solving cases. But I couldn’t find any evidence of his talents in this case. Thankfully his character improved as the book progressed, and he became slightly less insufferable. Only slightly.

The only two characters I thought were well drawn were Catherine and Miriam. The others were all flat and uninteresting. The characters I liked the least were Sylvie and Quentin. Their interactions took away from the intensity of the book.

The book started off really well, and the murder happened early on, and I found myself settling down for a gripping read. But then the pace slowed down, thanks to the long backstories that were provided for every character, and precious little happened in the present, until more than half the book was done. The story didn’t advance in any way.

Detective Jones himself was introduced to us by way of a long scene at a bar, and an introduction to three old cops and a woman that Jones used to date. This entire scene could have been eliminated. Neither the woman nor the three cops show up again, but the book included their backstories too.

There was a twist at the end, but one that I’d seen coming. So the conclusion wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped it would be.

There were a lot of proofing errors in the Kindle edition. At one point, the author says of a newborn baby: “The baby had a churlish smile.” Babies don’t smile until they are some months of age. Besides the factual inaccuracy, the idea of describing a baby’s smile as churlish makes no sense.



I found this line quite interesting:

Every little animal, when set loose for the first time, dashes wildly to be sure it is really free.

This was super hard for me to finish. I was reallllyyyyyy bored throughout honestly. I found my attention wavering basically from chapter one. I did enjoy the throwback vibes of this one, and the setting was excellent… just felt the characters lacked and the writing was stale.

I had a hard time getting into this book. It might be the mood I am currently experiencing. As I have written with other reviews, I am a major mood reader.. I may give this book another shot when I am in the mood for a good thriller.

A murder with sooo many different suspects…a detective who is determined to find the culprit…this is a story that keeps you guessing until finally the truth comes out. This was a slow build but overall a good story.

reading the secrets of good people felt like stepping into the mind of someone nostalgic for a bygone era—a time when life seemed simpler & clues fell neatly into place. per the author’s note, i was right! the original author’s daughter reached out to boo walker to help her edit & publish her late-mother’s novel. it’s a sweet, slightly drawn-out murder mystery, but the twist is definitely there.

This was my first book by Boo Walker., I really enjoyed his writing, the story was simple, but the characters were rich, and their backstories intriguing.
Catherine marries a man she barely knows, and then he is murdered. The island setting makes it a locked room mystery, and there are only a handful of inhabitants/suspects to choose from. Still, I was engaged, and had fun getting to know them in all their glorious dysfunction.
I will read more books by this author.

1970s beach town murder mystery a la Agatha Christie/Clue, complete with a hunt for the murder weapon. Sold.

Quite the cast of characters, really kept you on your toes the whole time. I loved Jones’ relentless pursuit of the truth in a little island’s community of dirty liars. 😂 I’m not gonna lie I felt a little gaslit by some of these characters and their poker faces. Loved the ending.

I’m so glad Boo Walker brought Peggy’s vision to life !

Thanks to #NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC. Opinions are my own.

#TheSecretsofGoodPeople #murdermystery

The Secrets of Good People by both Boo Walker and Peggy Shainberg is an interesting compilation of a seamless story written over time by two authors. The plot is fairly straightforward (who killed Frank?) and the book spends the entire time trying to solve the mystery. With an intriguing twist or two, the ending reveals several surprises.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Growing up in the 70s this book appealed to me. I enjoyed the storyline and characters. It was not a complex read but simple and enjoyable. Made me remember and long for the simpler life. I had not heard of this author but I certainly will read more of his books.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the digital advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion