Review: Woman with a Secret by Sophie Hannah

Woman with a Secret

by Sophie Hannah

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 384

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Traffic on Elmhirst Road has come to a halt. The police are stopping cars, searching for something. Nicki Clements waits patiently, until she glimpses a face she hoped she’d never see again. It’s him—and he’s the cop checking each car. Desperate to avoid him, she makes a panicky U-turn and escapes.

But Nicki’s peculiar behavior did not go unnoticed, and now the police have summoned her for questioning. A resident of Elmhirst Road has been murdered—a controversial newspaper columnist named Damon Blundy. The detectives begin peppering her with questions. Why was she seen fleeing the scene? What is her connection to the victim? Why was the knife that killed him used in such a peculiar way? Why were the words “HE IS NO LESS DEAD” painted on the wall of Blundy’s study?  And what do they signify? 

One simple answer could clear her. But she can’t explain why she fled Elmhirst Road that day without revealing the secret that could ruin her.

Nicki isn’t guilty of murder. But she’s far from innocent . . .


Kritters Thoughts:  Nicki is married, but not completely happy and is guilty, but the reader doesn't know what she is guilty of in the beginning.  At the same time a controversial columnist is found dead in his home with many clues at his murder and no leads.  Nicki gets tied up in the murder investigation, but the reader knows that her guilt isn't to the murder, but we don't know for quite some time until all the clues start to come together.  

The chapters alternated between Nicki's point of view and the murder investigation with columns from the victim interspersed.  I loved that these two things were kept separate via chapters - it helped get into each story line at a time.  The investigation got a little hectic and confusing so I read that chapter a little slower because of all the moving parts and detectives, it was just a lot to take in where Nicki's chapters went smoother.

I enjoyed "hearing" from the dead, but the columns themselves were just ok.  I don't know what I wanted to hear, but I felt like they were just so so.  

My first Sophie Hannah read and it won't be my last, but I wasn't completely in love with this one.  I love a who dun it, but I felt like the killer came out of left field and it just didn't satisfy me.  Yes, the character was there throughout the book, but I just didn't feel like they should have been the one - it didn't work for me, but I am still wanting to try another one by her.


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.