"Six neighbours, six secrets, six reasons to want Olive Collins dead."

Full of juicy secrets and neighbours acting odd, Dirty Little Secrets is an engrossing, entertaining read. Detectives Frank Brazil and Emma Childs’ investigation takes place primarily at Withered Vale and there are multiple narrators, including the six neighbours, which may be overwhelming to some readers.

I can't believe that this book has been sitting on my Kindle for so long unread but I have finally read it as part of a Jo Spain marathon reading week.

Dirty Little Secrets is a character driven story based around the residents of a gated community. Olive has been living there the longest, in fact her house was originally the only house on the street until the other houses were built around hers creating the Withered Vale community.

The opening prologue really sets the scene making you wonder how no-one hadn't noticed that Olive hadn't been around for the last 3 months. But as we soon discover many of the residents have their own secrets and issues that they are trying to keep hidden whilst at the same time trying to paint a picture perfect image of the lives they are living as opposed to the reality of what's going on in their lives.

Told through alternating chapters we hear from some of the characters in the different households as well as the two detectives, Emma and Frank, leading the investigation. I think at one point or another I had my suspicions with almost everyone. Every time something was revealed I began to suspect that person might have been responsible until the next revelation came along and another neighbour became my focus. It was also interesting reading the chapters from Olive's perspective as even though she might not have been there physically she's very much at the centre of the storyline from beyond the grave and we get to see what she thought about her neighbours.

As the police investigation ramps up, many of the residents find themselves under the spotlight as they are questioned about their relationships with each other but especially about their interactions with Olive. And as we soon discover Olive wasn't quite the charming old women that was initially portrayed, she'd had dramas with each and every neighbour and many of them had their own reasons for wanting her dead but were any of them responsible for her death?

Dirty Little Secrets is an intricately, well-plotted story that would make a great TV drama with its quirky cast of characters and their many dark secrets.

Great novel. Loved the way we got to hear from all the neighbours (including olive) and the way the narrative played out. Thanks for the opportunity to read

Brilliant book, I really enjoyed the plot it was so well thought out. Especially loved the ending where you learn the truth

Jo Spain books always have an original idea as the plot and this one no exception. However it’s not my favourite of hers that I’ve read mainly because all the neighbours had too much in common to be believable. That similarity was their dramatic back story but the idea was overplayed.

Everyone has a motive, but just who was behind it, and how does one person go unnoticed for so long?

Settle yourself down in the garden, on the beach, or by the poolside and prepare yourself to be lost...

Easy to read, with it's quick narrative, thanks to it's multiple perspective format, from the suspects, and investigators, to the victim herself you won't want to put it down.

Olive Collins lives in the exclusive gated community of Withered Vale along with her six neighbours. A lovely and well maintained community. Everyone lives there in perfect harmony ? Well yes they did up until Olives body is discovered three months after she has died. Was it an accidental death or has one of her neighbours killed her ?

I'm a massive fan of this authors books and this one was no exception . From the first chapter I was totally hooked on the story. There was lots of unpleasant characters in this book which I absolutely loved. The story was so good that it was impossible for me to even guess which of the neighbours might be guilty. A wonderful book from beginning to end.

Another cracking novel from Jo Spain. She does creepy unpleasantness so well! This was a great crime thriller, which kept me guessing until the end.

This book is fantastic. It will keep you gripped and you will drop all your plans to finish this amazing read.

This book was brilliant! I picked it up one afternoon and I literally didn’t stop reading until I’d turned the final page! It follows seven residents in a gated community in the aftermath of one of the neighbours being found dead. The neighbours seem like they’d be close-knit and yet Olive had been dead for three months before anyone realised! The novel follows each of these characters as we get to know their back stories and how well they know each other. They all have their own secrets and things they don’t want to come out but the investigation into the murder means everything has to come out into the open. This novel kept me on my toes all the way through. I couldn’t make my mind up who was most likely to have harmed Olive and what I eventually settled on was completely wrong! The end when it comes is shocking and deeply unsettling but it’s also such a satisfying end to the book. I loved this one and I’m now so keen to read more by Jo Spain! I definitely recommend this book!

I would give this book 3.25 stars.

This was a really enjoyable thriller.

I was immediately intrigued by the story when I discovered that parts of the story are told from the murdered woman's perspective.

In theory this had a lot of things going for it; it was a thriller with a small pool of suspects, unlikable characters and I was kept guessing the entire time. In practice though, I just could not connect to this story.

I would definitely recommend giving this thriller a go.

Olive is dead but which of her neighbours killed her. A proper whodunit. Well developed characters and a great plot.

Loved this book! It was fascinating to see the secrets and lies of the neighbours come to light. Olive's narrative in between reveals her encounters with them and casts doubt on everyone. Pretty much everyone has a potential motive, to the point that it's a guessing game as to what happened. At first I was a bit disappointed with the ending but a page or so later, I realised it was actually very clever, both from the author and the culprit. This is my second book from the author and another great read. Can't wait for more!

I enjoyed this novel much more than the previous offering from the same author.
Olive Collins who is in her mid fifties is discovered dead in her cottage home, a six house development in Withered Vale. Her body has been decomposing for three months, none of the neighbouring residents bothering to knock her door to find out how she is. The Detectives Frank and Emma discover that Olive died from a heart-attack but their suspicions are raised when they also discover that her gas boiler has been tampered with and the windows and vents sealed shut. All the neighbours are questioned and it appears that they all have something to hide. Each of them have encountered disagreements with Olive in the weeks leading up to her death.
The neighbours vegetarian David and his wife Lily, Matt the accountant and his wife Chrissy, who is having an affair with salesman Ron . George, who is addicted to porn, Ed and Amelia the retired couple who are currently on holiday, single mother Alison and her precocious but fragile daughter, Holly. All of them are suspects and each of them have a reason for wanting Olive dead.
This is a really good book that is entertaining with a great plot.

First Jo Spain novel I’ve read and won’t be the last. Really enjoyed how she weaves the various neighbours strands together and creates a real sense of mistrust between members of the little community!

I really enjoyed this, my second read from Jo Spain. The story felt original and I loved the closed circle nature of the set-up - it was like a classic whodunit but with some adult themes and some very funny moments.

I also really liked the structure - hearing from all of the characters in turn, including the victim, and the flashbacks - hearing how Olive saw herself, versus seeing how she managed to alienate every single person around her. It was cleverly written and I hope to read more from Jo Spain.

Thank you to Quercus Books and NetGalley for the ARC of Dirty Little Secrets.

Flipping brilliant! A completely addictive read which will have your mind twisting and turning trying to work out whodunnit! Thoroughly enjoyable and well recommended holiday read!

A small enclosed neighbourhood, but there are hidden stories behind every door. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and did not feel sorry for Olive, who was dead for three months before she was discovered. By the end of the book anyone in the street could have killed her. She really was not a nice person. The ending was unexpected. Another novel by this author I thoroughly enjoyed.

Hooked me from the first page, it is a typical who did it? Thriller, being one of my favourite genres I have read many and this was fantastic read. Just when you think you know who did it, there is a twist and you are left to try and piece it all together again. I know how detectives feel now lol.
The plot was great, very believable, something that could really happen in real life, the characters developed well throughout the book. Each chapter is told from a different neighbours POV.
Who would have thought so many people would have secrets hidden?
I would definitely recommend it to fans of psychological thrillers. You will not be disappointed.

4★
“It’s the only way when you live in a cut-off community like this. Smile, make small talk, but keep your hedges high and your door closed.”

Ah yes. Keep those hedges high, but there are always back doors, and it seems some neighbours made good use of them. This is not a closed-room mystery, but it’s a closed community with a gate and not a lot of residents.

The original resident was Olive, who lived in a small cottage on a nice piece of land. She was found dead, a good (or bad, if you were one of the first on the scene!) three months after she died. Natural causes, suicide, misadventure? Whatever the reason, she’s a disgusting, flyblown sight now, and the detectives heartily wish that someone had noticed her absence earlier.

“Frank Brazil had never claimed to have a strong stomach. . . Even his partner Emma looked slightly less orange than normal, her naturally fair skin a few notches paler under the caked foundation cream.”

They pull themselves together and begin to investigate. A bit of background first. When the owner of the land decided to develop “Withered Vale” some years ago, Olive’s small cottage became #4 of 7 houses, the other 6 being the kind of large, impressive homes you’d expect to find in an exclusive community. (Its unfortunate name was the result of a farmer who foolishly poisoned all his crops when spraying pests with arsenic.)

The author’s done a great job of differentiating the people and giving us their histories, so much so, that I found I seldom had to look back to remind myself who someone was or which child belonged to whom. Each chapter is introduced with the person or family’s name and house number. Full marks, Ms Spain, for that!

Even Frank and Emma, the detective and his young partner, are fleshed out with back stories that explain their reactions to some of the secrets as they are revealed.

The author also describes well the awkwardness that we may all feel about some neighbours.

“. . . there was a shyness amongst the grown-ups of Withered Vale. In a domestic setting, out of the suits and offices, metres from their own private abodes, each of them felt an odd sense of discomfort, like they should be more relaxed than they were. Like they should know each other more than they did.”

Olive, as the first resident, usually initiated friendly contact and assumed a kind of ownership of the community. She, at least, was keen to know plenty about all of them.

Of the seven homes, three belong to singles, Olive, George, and Ron. Two belong to couples with kids; one belongs to a single mother and daughter; and one belongs to an older couple with no kids.

Each character gets a chance to tell us their own story, including Olive from beyond the grave. There is a point in each story where I found the foreshadowing a bit overdone. Every person lets us know there is something dark in their past . . . but then we move along to the next person’s chapter. And it's obvious Olive irritated them.

"‘She was an awful woman. You should be glad she’s dead.’

. . . ‘You can’t say things like that! When somebody dies . . .’

‘They’re still the same person. . . don’t look at me like that.’”

The detectives are quick to note the discomfort in each house. Frank mulls it over with Emma.

“‘They’re all lying about something. That I’m bloody sure of. But are we being too quick to rule out the possibility of somebody we haven’t encountered yet having it in for her and being in the house that afternoon?’”

Oh no! And just when I thought I was narrowing down the suspects! There were some parts that I thought might have been improved, but overall, it was fun. And, no, I didn’t narrow down the suspects correctly, but, in my defence, I will say only that I am in good company.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus books for an entertaining mystery!