Hello and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Keep My Secrets by Elena Wilkes! If you haven't been here before, please do click around to see my other reviews. I read quite a lot of crime thrillers, it's one of my favourite genres and things being as they are in 2021 means that I'm trying to read things that make me happy because god knows everything else is rubbish.
I heard the blurb for this book and thought it sounded interesting, so immediately wanted to sign up. Thank you to Hera Books for having me on the tour, and for providing me with an electronic copy of the book for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
So, Frankie is thirty-three years old and lives on the Welsh border with her husband Alex. She is a social worker for kids in care and at the beginning of the book she's been up on a roof trying to persuade a teenager to come down. She ends up filthy and goes home ready to get in a hot bath.
But, Frankie has secrets. She grew up in care after being abandoned as a child, and was a somewhat wayward teen. At seventeen, she started a relationship with a volunteer at the home she lived in. He was called Martin and they did seem to form a genuine connection. However, they also started breaking into houses together. On one such occasion they almost get caught and they run off together to a party. There, Martin meets a girl the same age as Frankie, called Charlotte.
Charlotte ends up murdered, and Martin is prime suspect. He goes on trial, and is ultimately sentenced for murder. He has a sentence of fifteen years, and in the 'now' times, he's out of prison. And Frankie has a stalker. Someone is sending her strange notes, and keeps phoning her, and has even followed her. Frankie is genuinely frightened of Martin, and of Alex finding out the truth about her past. Alex has had a rough time due to the demise of his business, and he's got very paranoid of Frankie. He's convinced she's having an affair and is checking her possessions and her phone and handbag. He won't listen to her say she isn't having an affair, but of course she's aware she is keeping secrets from him.
When Martin was on trial, Frankie ended up meeting Charlotte's mum, Vanessa, who was also in court. Charlotte lived with her mum, stepdad Peter, and stepbrother Jack. Frankie ends up getting embroiled in the family, despite her best instincts, and everything goes wrong. She soon meets Alex and marries him, and hopes that part of her life is over.
I liked the book, although I did think a lot kept happening and towards the end it was one thing after another after another, a couple of which I found a bit unbelievable. I liked Frankie, but wished at the beginning she would just be honest with Alex. I found him frustrating and annoying, given his paranoia. I haven't heard of the author before but would read something else by her for sure! I'm giving this four out of five.
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