Ooh this book!!!!!!!!
The Secret Admirer by Carol WyerSeries: Detective Natalie Ward #6
Published by Bookouture on April 2, 2020
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Pages: 413
Amazon UK
Goodreads
Also by this author: The Birthday, What Happens in France, Little Girl Lost , Secrets of the Dead, The Missing Girls , The Silent Children , The Chosen Ones, Life Swap, Take A Chance On Me, What Happens in France, Suddenly Single, The Birthday, Last Lullaby, The Dare , The Sleepover, The Blossom Twins , Somebody’s Daughter , EndGame, An Eye for an Eye, A Cut for a Cut
‘I tried to talk to you today but you snubbed me and walked away. It wasn’t wise to give me the brush-off, Gemma. I can be a truly good friend but I also make the perfect enemy.’
Sasha’s eighteen-year-old daughter Gemma was all she had in the world. Sasha fell pregnant with Gemma when she was still at school, and the two are as close as sisters. So when Gemma’s burned and broken body is found, Sasha’s world ends. What kind of person would want her beautiful daughter dead?
Leading the case is Detective Natalie Ward, scarred by her own recent tragedy. When she finds a note in Gemma’s diary from a ‘secret admirer’, she moves quickly, determined to un-mask them. But interviews with Gemma’s devastated ex-boyfriend, and her charismatic teacher, who has been seen embracing his student far away from the classroom, don’t give Natalie the answers she’d hoped for…
And then the case takes a devastating, personal twist. CCTV footage reveals Natalie’s estranged husband David followed Gemma home every evening the week before she died.
Natalie is forced to put personal feelings aside and follow procedure, even though she can’t believe David could be guilty. But when Gemma’s housemate is found murdered,
Natalie thinks the killer could still be at large. Is she right to trust her instincts about David and can she discover the truth before another precious life is taken?
No trailer for this one but an audio snippet
I have just this second finished and I have tears down my face!! Carol!!! It is tough to follow on after The Blossom Twins but Carol has achieved that here. It is like she knows our fears and emotions and puts that all on Natalie, everything we would and do experience as a reader, Natalie is experiencing. That is not an easy ride.
This case is like the chicken and the egg, what comes first? If person A didn’t do this, then person B wouldn’t have done that which led to person C doing this to go back to person B and then through person D E F G etc etc so much was going on! As weird as this sounds, and it does sound weird, this book felt lighter than the last one. I can’t explain what it is because the opening scenes are awful, I mean an acid attack on someone’s face is just beyond awful (I just can’t think of any words to explain it better!). Then there are two more deaths which just do not make sense. Maybe because I am still trying to get over the horrors of the last book, maybe I’m desensitised or maybe I am just plain weird but this story had a different feel to it.
Maybe, maybe it’s because we weren’t looking for a serial killer this time and maybe because I didn’t feel the pressure of a ticking time bomb, maybe that’s why it felt lighter. There wasn’t the usual urgency in Natalie’s life. This is the first case back from that book and it’s not easy being thrown straight into an acid attack. When we are with Natalie, we feel that weight on her shoulders and we sense the black cloud because it’s the same for us. These people are like family now. What they feel we feel.
Natalie not only has a lot of pressure to solve this case but somehow David is involved. Now I washed my hands of him after the last book, but Carol said to give him another chance. So I did, and what did she do, she made me shed tears over him!! Woman! His sections of the book were hard to read, when he was being interrogated and when we see him with Natalie outside the case. I was then thrown into a frenzied panic at one point urging the story along to get the outcome for David. Tears!!!
Murray is back! Yay! The team are back together and the banter is back. We so needed Murray in the last book, the team wasn’t right, but this time he is back. He is like a dog with a bone. He is not taking any crap from anyone, oh Murray! Lucy, however, is now suffering at the hands of her job. She is now having a bit of “grief” from her partner to spend time with her and their newborn baby. The job really does take over.
It was an ease of a welcome back for Natalie but no means easy for her. Everywhere she looked she has heartbreak but she does what does best. She put her big girl pants on and she hunts for justice. She has to compartmentalise her personal life when working and I admire her for that. Don’t worry I’m not a secret admirer writing her letters…..I am an open one doing it right here LOL sorry couldn’t resist.
Well…on to the final book in the series now, quite upset about this. No dramatic end at the end of The Secret Admirer but a lot of change is in the process of happening. Whether this change will be for the better, well I am off to find out now!
Until next time xxx
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
carolwyer says
I’ve said it before but I’m going to repeat myself here – I love your reviews. You completely ‘get’ what I try to do – yes, the book is deliberately lighter without the awful intensity of the last book so no serial killer lurking with their thoughts this time, yes… Murray is back because we need him and the team dynamics have to be right so they can support Natalie who is still struggling but doing what she does best – find justice. the mirroring of the case and Sasha’s experience is deliberate and as for David! I knew you’d come round. He deserved some tears. You have totally made my day and my month and what a mont h it has been. Each morning I’ve woken up, eagerly anticipating what you you have posted for the day and today was another great surprise (like unwrapping a present).
Zoe, thank you for this, for the whole month, and for loving my characters as much as I do.
Zoé says
Yes I think I am back on the David train for now but I do need answers ? this book was so well thought out and a great way to ease Natalie back in. Her struggle is real and you feel it here.
I adore all your character, I mean I don’t mind Tasker and he’s annoyingly Lol xx