- The Secrets We Share is told from many points of view. As the story is revealed, who did you identify with most? Are all the point-of-view characters reliable, and do they tell themselves the truth?
- Did you find yourself switching your allegiances to characters as you progressed through the novel? Do you think the author intended you to side with anyone in particular? Why or why not?
- How would you describe Natalie Cavanaugh at the beginning of the novel? Were you confused as to whether she was the hero or the villain of the story? How do your views of Natalie change over the course of the novel?
- Angela White and Natalie Cavanaugh are about the same age and have both been detectives with the Boston Police Department for over a decade. Why has Angela been so much more successful in her career?
- One of the themes of this novel is reinvention. How are characters successful in reinventing themselves? Where do they fail?
- Another theme in the novel is avoidance, or willful blindness. Mavis Abbott exemplifies this by compartmentalizing every aspect of her life as she imagines a closet full of boxes. How do other characters approach avoidance?
- Natalie and Glenn were both teenagers when their father was murdered. How have Natalie and Glenn carried the media frenzy around their father’s death into their adult lives? How have they approached it differently? How have they approached it in the similar ways?
- There are several physical spaces in the story that help establish character (the abandoned factory, Natalie’s house, Glenn’s house, the town of Elmhurst, Olivia’s farmhouse, Starling Circle). Which was the most vivid in your mind, and how did the descriptions of the spaces move the story forward or enrich it?
- Several secrets are revealed in the final chapters of the novel. Which secrets surprised you? Which secrets were the most satisfying?
- What was the significance of the title The Secrets We Share? Would you have called the novel something else?
To schedule an online meeting with your book club, visit edwin-hill.com.
In a mesmerizingly twisty standalone suspense novel perfect for fans of Shari Lapena and Riley Sager, acclaimed author Edwin Hill explores the deep bonds—and deadly secrets—between two very different sisters haunted by the crimes of their father murdered nearly twenty years earlier…
Two sisters, one long-ago murder, and a web of terrifying secrets…
At first glance, Natalie Cavanaugh and Glenn Abbott hardly look like sisters. Even off-duty, Natalie dresses like a Boston cop, preferring practical clothes and unfussy, pinned-up hair. Her younger sister, Glenn, seems tailor-made for the spotlight, from her signature red mane to her camera-ready smile. Glenn has spent years cultivating her brand through her baking blog, and with the publication of her new book, that hard work seems about to pay off. But her fans have no idea about the nightmare in Glenn and Natalie’s past.
Twenty years ago, their father’s body was discovered in the woods behind their house. A trauma like that doesn’t fit with Glenn’s public image. Yet, maybe someone reading her blog does know something. There have been anonymous online messages, vague yet ominous, hinting that she’s being watched. And with unsettling coincidences hitting ever closer to home, both Glenn and Natalie soon have more pressing matters to worry about, especially when a dead body is found in an abandoned building.
Natalie is starting to wonder how much Glenn really knows about the people closest to her. But are there also secrets Natalie has yet to uncover about those she herself trusts? For two decades, she’s believed their father was murdered by their neighbor, with whom he was having an affair. But if those events are connected to what’s happening now, maybe there’s much more that Natalie doesn’t know. About their father. About their neighbors. About her friends. Maybe even about herself.
But there are no secrets between sisters…are there?
Uncover the Truth With These New Mystery Series