Every Secret Thing: A Novel

“This is a standout.”
—Orlando Sentinel
 
“One of those books that publishers like to say ‘transcends the genre,’ but in this case it’s true.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

Every Secret Thing is a riveting story of love and murder, guilt and innocence, adult sins and childhood darkness that the New York Times Book Review hailed as, “powerful…disturbing.” Stepping away from her acclaimed, award-winning mystery series featuring Baltimore private investigator Tess Monaghan, author Laura Lippman has delivered a novel of psychological suspense that will shock and mesmerize readers, gripping them to the page while breaking their hearts. The tale of a terrible event that devastates three families, after two young girls discover by of an unsupervised baby on an empty street, Every Secret Thing is a bravura demonstration of the extraordinary storytelling skill that has won Laura Lippman every major literary prize bestowed upon mystery writers, including the Edgar®, the Anthony, the Shamus, and the Agatha Awards.

Since her debut in 1997, Laura Lippman has won virtually every major prize in the mystery-writing field and earned the highest critical praise for her Tess Monaghan series, which has been called "spectacular" (New York Times), "terrific fun" (Washington Post), "a delight" (Baltimore Sun), and "the best mystery writing around" (Village Voice). Now Lippman steps outside her series to deliver her darkest, most troubling tale -- and vaults into the crime-fiction elite with a haunting story of murder, fate's accidents, and the stories we tell ourselves when we try to make sense of the unthinkable.

On a July afternoon two little girls, banished from a birthday party, take a wrong turn onto an unfamiliar Baltimore street -- and encounter an abandoned stroller with a baby inside it. Dutiful Alice Manning and unpredictable Ronnie Fuller only want to be helpful, to be good. People like children who are good, Alice thinks. But whatever the girls' real intentions, things go horribly awry and three families are destroyed.

Seven years later Alice and Ronnie are heading home again -- only separately this time, their fragile bond long shattered, their secrets still closely kept. Advised to avoid each other, they enter a world where they essentially have no past. In exchange, they are promised a fresh start, the chance to mold their own future.

That promise is broken when a child disappears, under disturbingly similar circumstances. And the adults in Alice's and Ronnie's lives -- the parents, the lawyers, the police -- realize that they must now confront the shattering truths they couldn't face seven years earlier. Or another mother will lose her child.

Homicide detective Nancy Porter was a rookie cop when she solved the original case with a bit of freakish luck -- and almost derailed her own career. Adept at finding the small things that can make or break a homicide case, now she must master the larger picture in order to understand where guilt truly lies. For no one is innocent in this world. Not even the children.

“Laura Lippman can speak in any voice....This may be the best book I’ve read all year.” - Charlotte News & Observer

“...a chilling study of mothers, daughters, love, and murder....Lucid, tight, and compelling.” - Kirkus Reviews on Every Secret Thing

“Mesmerizing. . . . A spine-tingler that resonates with torn-from-the-headlines immediacy.” - Washington Post

“Every Secret Thing will stay with you for a long time.” - Chicago Sun-Times

“Not just a mystery but a tragedy...a grimly satisfying read that illumines one of our deepest fears as a modern society.” - Baltimore Sun

“This is a standout. And the story of children in jeopardy and innocence lost is sadly all too timely.” - Orlando Sentinel