Every Secret Thing (Mass Market Paperback)

It has been seven years since Olivia Barnes, a baby from a prominent Baltimore African-American family, disappeared. Her killers, two 11-year-old white girls, have only recently been released from prison when children again start to disappear.

Cynthia Barnes, the slain child's mother, is certain that the pair is at it again, and the police aren't far behind. But which of the teens is responsible? Is it good girl Alice or bad girl Ronnie? Or is it another killer altogether?

Every Secret Thing deals with difficult subject matter, portraying children as both victims and perpetrators of the worst kind of violence. Lippman, however, writes with such a deft touch and with such keen insight that her story is never exploitative or crass.

Whether it is driven by Lippman's feminine sensitivity, her skills as a writer, or both, one thing is certain: Every Secret Thing will stay with you for a long time.

Reviewed by David Montgomery, Chicago Sun-Times

"Every Secret Thing" begins with a tragedy. A little girl named Olivia Barnes is kidnapped and, several days later, she is murdered. Two eleven-year-old girls named Ronnie Fuller and Alice Manning are charged with the crime, and they spend seven years in juvenile detention facilities. When they are released, Ronnie and Alice are young women of eighteen. Before long, when another little girl named Brittany goes missing, Ronnie and Alice are once again under suspicion.

There are so many things to praise about this book that it is difficult to pick one, but above all else, the character development is uniformly outstanding. We get to know each major and several minor characters intimately, as if they were our own neighbors. Lippman gives us a glimpse into the minds of Ronnie and Alice, two unhappy and lonely misfits with a tenuous grip on reality. We become well acquainted with Helen Manning, Alice's narcissistic and foolish mother, Nancy Porter, the cop who found Olivia's body and has been haunted by the case ever since, and Cynthia Barnes, Olivia's bitter and grieving mother whose life is devoted to seeing Alice and Ronnie destroyed. That the two girls responsible for killing Olivia should be set free to walk the earth is simply not an option for Cynthia, who has powerful political connections and is used to getting what she wants.

As the story unfolds, a tale of psychological horror emerges that is truly chilling. When I turned the last page, I knew that I would be thinking about this book for some time to come, marveling at how Lippman mines so many themes so effectively, and how she makes us care deeply about the outcome of her story. Don't miss this unforgettable thriller.