The Deepest Secret by Carla Buckley – Audio
Book Blurb:
Diagnosed with XP, a rare medical condition, which makes him lethally sensitive to light, Tyler is a thirteen-year-old who desperately wants just one thing: to be normal. His mother Eve also wants just one thing: to protect her son. As Tyler begins roaming their cul-de-sac at night, cloaked in the safety of the darkness, he peers into the lives of the other families on the street-looking in on the things they most want hidden. Then, the young daughter of a neighbor suddenly vanishes, and Tyler may be the only one who can make sense of her disappearance…but what will happen when everyone’s secrets are exposed to the light?
My Review: 4 stars
Carla Buckley should be much higher on everyone’s family psychological thriller list. The Deepest Secret is the second title I’ve read from her and both are highly suspenseful whodunits. What makes her books special are the family dynamics that she develops around the mystery. I could imagine all of the characters in my head with great detail and a good back-story for each of them. Perhaps that was because of the cadence in the audio performance.
Interestingly, I was listening to this on audio while simultaneously reading The Woman In The Window. Both have similar aspects of each other: character can’t go outside, someone is murdered and character sees something they’re not supposed to. Of course there were plenty of differences as well. Both of these books reminded me of Rear Window, Hitchcock’s brilliant movie based on the 1942 novel.
Having a main character with XP made for a unique situation for all the people involved with him and his family. This allowed for a perfect scenario with lots of darkness and tension. I didn’t know anything about XP and I always find it a bonus when I read and learn something new at the same time.
The book definitely hits the mark regarding the secrets everyone keeps, which means you don’t really know anyone, even your own family. This mystery is unusual because the reader learns who committed the actual crime from the beginning of the novel. The offender lies tediously and continually in order to hide the truth of what happened, honestly, it got a bit annoying. Concurrently, we learn secrets from other characters that beg the reader to ask who the guilty party really is. If I could, this would be a 3.75 stars.
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