I really enjoyed this book! Well written, held my interest. Thanks to Hera books and NetGalley for allowing me an arc to this book in exchange for an honest review. I don’t want to reveal too much, but the gist of the story is a hairstylist with a husband and kids and a happy life. A walk-in chatting with the stylist mentions her boyfriend and shows her a pic of him and his dad. The father is the stylist’s husband!!!

Thanks to Netgalley and Hera books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While Sally is doing a teenager's hair in the salon where she works, the girl shows her a picture of her boyfriend and his father. The father is Sally's husband Tom. The only problem is Tom doesn't have other kids, or so Sally thought. Turns out Tom has been hiding things and so have some other people.

This was a good quick read. There wasn't really anything earth shattering here, but I enjoyed the book. I really like Sally as the narrator because she was very direct and believable. I loved her perspective on things. I would read more from this author.

When Sally discovers her husband has been keeping a big secret from her, she begins to question how well she knows her spouse of 16 years. As her unease and questions mount, Sally attempts to get to the bottom of his increasing deceit. This is the premise behind The Secrets He Kept, an impressive and compulsive domestic thriller.

I found this to be a quick read and interesting in a 'rubbernecker' kind of way as the reader witnesses the implosion of a family that once had strong ties. Sally is the main character who is trying to make sense of her husband's deceit and keep her family together. Readers will sympathize with her but may feel frustrated at her initial naïveté as she tries to explain away her husband's growing lies until she can not longer ignore the truth.

As the lies increase, so does the tension making this a hard to put down book. As an avid reader of this genre, I had a few suspicions but soon guessed the big secret. Even so, the journey to the end of this thriller was enjoyable and I was impressed by its twists, growing tension and satisfying ending.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to the publisher for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Sally is a hairdresser, going through the motions each day of going to work and raising 3 kids with her husband Tom. Until one day at the salon, a young girl walks in for an appointment and changes Sally life forever..

Suddenly she is staring at a picture of her husband and his “son” that she had no idea existed.. And we’re taken on a journey with Sally as she finds out the truth about her husband’s, and everyone else’s, lies.

This was a quick, twisty read! I enjoyed Jackie’s Walsh’s writing style and especially enjoyed the smart remarks edged into the suspense. An edgy, domestic suspense novel that will have you wondering about who’s the better liar.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jackie Walsh and Hera Books for an #egalley in exchange for an honest review.

#JackieWalshh #TheSecretsHeKept #NetGalley

The Secret He Kept offered a story about a tired and hysteric wife/mother and nonchalant dad/husband and how will she reacted when she found out that her husband was keeping a secret from her.

Scratch that, this book isn't about the possible secret that her husband kept or something that might happened because of said secret.

Sure, something did happened, and it's a murder nonetheless but nothing really touch the main character until after almost everything passed. And by then, I was already dead tired from life in general and reading the book in particular.

Sally Cooper thought her husband had dropped the biggest possible bombshell on their marriage when he admitted to her that he had blown all her savings on an investment opportunity which failed quite spectacularly, scuppering her dream of owning her own hairdressing salon, forcing her to work all the hours she could in someone else's salon. It is whilst working in there that a customer shows her a photograph which puts her financial issues in their place and completely rocks the foundation of her marriage to Tom. A photograph which suggests her husband has a teenage son and a secret life which he has told Sally nothing about.
After much deliberation Sal confronts Tom about the possibility of the existence of the child in the photograph, but his reaction does little to calm her fears or explain anything. Tom's behaviour changes in that instant as does the whole pace of Sal's life. Yes, things were hectic before as she worked crazy hours to try to keep a roof over their heads and the bills paid - not to mention keeping up with their daughter's demands for the latest fashion and make up trends - but throw in a lack of sleep and an overactive imagination due to the fact that Sal knows her husband is keeping things from her and Sal is struggling to cope. Then a local woman is found murdered in a street not too far away from theirs, leading to the police on their doorstep.
I could totally understand Sal's torment in this book: she wants to believe her husband but the way he is acting and the facts the police are giving her are saying something different completely. Why would he lie now about the existence of the boy in the photograph? Does anyone else know? And why are the police knocking on their door in particular? She's a strong character and I admired the way she handled herself in some really tricky situations along the way but there's a limit to every person's tolerance.
I particularly liked the character of Sally & Tom's daughter, Amber; typical of many teenagers she has plenty of sarcastic lines in the book, temper tantrums and sulks, but you can see that underneath it all she's a good kid. As is often the case Amber channels most of her anger and angst towards her mum as it's she who has the "bad cop" role when it comes to parenting. While the adults have clearly tried to keep a lot of their "grown up" issues away from her she's far more astute than they realise. Dad Tom I could quite happily have strangled myself on more than one occasion and by the end of the book it appeared that maybe the boy in the photograph is more like his dad than anyone realised. After all, it's not just adults who can keep a secret is it?

3.5 stars ⭐

This book was a...suprise. Sally(the MC) is such a nice woman(which is rare in thrillers, i know) when she's mad, you're mad with her, when she's happy you're happy with her. Her husband, on the other hand, is an asshole. When she would get suspicious of him(rightfully so) he would basically GASLIGHT her, making her feel stupid for even consider being suspicious of him. FUCK YOU TOM. It was pretty vanilla when it comes to thrillers, nothing really special happens. But I liked, (SPOILERS AHEAD YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!!!!) except: Well it's pretty clear I didn't like Tom, the book kind of wraps up nicely except for when he doesn't go to the twins birthday his excuse is that he ran over some cyclist which Sally(being the smart woman that the is, thinks there's more to the story, but we never get a conclusion on this and that made me really sad, it was the perfect opportunity for making Tom the killer.

Sally, a hairdresser, is doing a young girl's hair. When the girl shows her a picture that has Sally's world crumbling around her. You won't want to stop reading this thrilling book. Secret after secret, lie after lie, who is telling the truth and who is not? There are enough twists to keep this book rolling right through to the end and keep you guessing the whole time. The author did a great job with the characters, they weren't picture perfect, they had their flaws, their doubts, and that makes them relatable. I highly recommend this book if you like a psychological thriller to keep you up past your bed time.

Thank you Netgalley for the free digital copy!

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. Gripping read! Full of secrets, lies and twists! Kept me gripping my tablet harder and harder oh my goodness. Highly recommend it! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

This book grabs the reader and refuses to let them go, even after the last page! The suspense and well developed characters make this a must read.

This book was, not to bad. I did not LOVE IT. Nor did i HATE IT. I just felt the situations were not realistic, as nobody would behave the way the wife acted , pretty much threw out the entire book. It was interesting to see the mess the husband got himself into and how the family dynamic changed because of his actions.

#TheSecretsHeKept #NetGalley
Engrossing till the end.
He loves you
He loves your children
He’d never put his family in danger
One of these is a lie.
What happened next? Read this amazing suspense thriller to know more about this.
A good read.

How many lies does it take before you stop believing everything someone tells you? That is the question that you will ask yourself as you read this story. The main character, Sally, is well written though I would have to say it is hard for me to believe that someone would be as forgiving and naive as she was in this story. The plot is interesting and has some twists and turns to it though a bit unbelievable with regards to the personality given to the main character. I am interested in reading more books by this author.

This was a fantastic game!!

A game?

But you read a book!!

I agree.

It was a book which played a game with me. The author's writing was so coated in mystery that my mind kept screaming - what is she trying to tell me? What is she hiding from me? The author Jackie Walsh kept me second guessing the whole time I read the story. I tried to decipher the hidden suspense. But alas, I didn't succeed. Only at the very end could I try to perhaps come to the right guess. Whew!

The story was pretty much simple, but made so convoluted that I had to scream at the characters to react... Show me the truth... Confront him.... What are you doing?... Why are you doing this?... Sal was a hairdresser and her husband was Tom. One day, a client showed a pic on her phone of boyfriend and his father. The father was Tom, Sal's husband. Then cane the story of lies and games, of truth and lies, of fake and reality. Add a murder too and you have a suspenseful mystery.

Innocence was never brilliantly played as this author did with her characters. I could not make out who was innocent and who was guilty. They were unlikable equally with hints of vulnerability. Not all of us are brave enough to rock a comfortable boat. I wanted Sal to confront her louse of a husband. I think I swore at that husband more times I could count.

It was quite a heart wrenching book!!

What? Was it emotional?

No no it was a suspense... All my swear words were wrenched from my heart at the husband and I was drained out at the end.

Whew!! 😂 😂 😂

A compulsively readable thriller that is perfect for fans of B A Paris and Liane Moriarty, The Secrets He Kept is a spine tingling tale of lies and deception that is sure to captivate and thrill readers and have them questioning how truly they know the people around them.

Sally and Tom have always had a rock-solid marriage. Their relationship is one most people would envy as they seem blissfully happy. They know everything about each other and trust one another implicitly. They have a beautiful family and the bonds that unite them seem to get stronger by the day. But Sally’s perfect marital happiness is set to shatter one day at work when her first client shows her a family photograph and she ends up collapsing in shock after spotting a very familiar figure in the picture.

In a split second, Sally realises that she is married to a perfect stranger. Who is the man she has married? What is the man she has shared her life, her bed and her body with hiding from her? Why has he betrayed her trust and what is she going to do next? Is Sally going to confront Tom and throw him out of her house and her life? Or is she so determined to keep her happy life that she will stay silent and bury the truth at all costs?

Sally may try to run and hide from what is really going on with her marriage, but she soon realises that she has absolutely nowhere to hide. When danger comes knocking on her door, who can Sally trust and turn to? The only thing she knows for sure is that she needs to keep her husband at arm’s length – but that proves to be easier said than done.

The Secrets He Kept is a book that will get under your skin and which you will keep thinking about long after you’ve turned the last page. Jackie Walsh knows how to keep her readers on edge and with The Secrets He Kept, she has penned a captivating thriller that is sinister and terrifying because what her characters are going through could easily happen to you and me.

Dark, menacing and twisted, The Secrets He Kept is another phenomenal thriller from fast rising star Jackie Walsh.

I love a plot full of unexpected twists and turns and this novel completely satisfied my need. However, the nature of it makes it one of novels that is difficult to go into without ruining the reading experience.

A normal day turns into the stuff of nightmares for Sally when a client shows a family picture to her. The woman's husband is actually Sally's husband. Sally faints in shock and when she comes around the woman is gone. So begins Sally's journey to discover the truth.

The more Sally discovers, the deeper down the rabbit hole she gets and her husband is not the only one keeping secrets.

The plot is really well paced and hooks the reader in, making it impossible to put down. It's one of those books where you intend on reading a chapter the "one more page" leads to the end.

I loved Sally's character. She's written as a normal everyday woman who just wants her family life back to normal - a character many of us can relate to. As someone who has has a very dry, often inappropriate sense of humour I found her so easy to relate to.

This is a fabulous thriller that moves at an exciting and heart-stopping pace.

The Secrets He Kept
by Jackie Walsh

Sally: mother, wife and hairdresser
Tom: her husband
Cian & Tom: twin sons of Sally & Tom
Amber: 15 year old daughter of Sally & Tom
Charlie: The sharer of a photo that upturns everyone’s lives

Sally had no idea that a photo on a phone would set in motion the search for information that had been hidden from her. As each little piece of information is uncovered I believe she was feeling more and more on the outside of what was happening. Everyone seems to have had secrets and been telling lies.

This is a psychologically twisty tale that has a prologue that indicates a murder took place but who was killed is not evident till around page 100 and then who is she and how does she relate to the story and most important of all...who killed her and why? Finding out who did it was a bit of a surprise so I won’t give that away. I will say that I did want to know so kept reading and sometimes skimmed to find out how it would end.

What I liked:
* Not knowing right away who was killed and who the killer was
* The slow unveiling
* The eventual knowing
* Cian and Aaron
* the threads being woven together

What left me unsettled:
* The lying
* The secrets
* The ending – though it kind of had to end as it did
* Wondering how the pieces would be picked up by those that remained at the end of the book

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley, Hera and BOTBS for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

I binged on this book and finished it in just one day. I really enjoyed reading this one. This gripped me from the very beginning, Sally appears to have the perfect life. That is until a client reveals her husband has secrets she is completely unaware of. A huge thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for this ARC. I can’t wait to read more by this author. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Sarah from Books on the Brightside publicity and the publisher for my spot on the blog tour and the arc of the book. My review is unbiased and honest. Books in the Psychological Thriller genre are my absolute favourite and the secrets he kept was an instalove affair with the cover, its intriguing and atmospheric and it didn’t disappoint.

How can I put into words just how this book made me feel? Well the only way is, Alice falling into the rabbit hole. This analogy is I’m sure accurate for Sally who ends up having her world destroyed at its axis. At first glance Sally seems to have the perfect life but Sally is struggling in the aftermath of a revelation that leaves her reeling. The novel doesn’t do gentle, the tone is immediately felt, and its haunting. Sally is a hairdresser and during her usual uneventful day has a client that shows her the one thing that can decimate her perfect existence, a photograph of her husband and this girl’s boyfriend but also her husband’s son. He doesn’t have a son, does he? Sally can’t process, her mind is like mashed potato. Things don’t make sense…her husband wouldn’t keep secrets of this magnitude, would he? I really enjoy the spousal secret plotline, but this novel uses it in a powerful depiction.

Reading The secrets, he kept felt like being in a super busy train station. Everyone and everything was moving around me, but it was all a blur. My psyche knew that they were moving but I couldn’t bring myself to look up. It was engrossing. Why is Tom lying? Is he protecting something or someone? Does Sally really want to know, or is this secret better left buried? The chapters were dark and disturbing, and it just increased the secrecy and level of paranoia surrounding Sally. Jackie Walsh is a master of the creeping unrest, the suffocating feeling of complexity, as if everything isn’t as it should be. The lies stabbed at me, why couldn’t Tom share this secret with her. Could this discovery kill her also? Just what level of interference did Kenny have? I wanted to hug Sally, the impact of this upon her life was irreparable. Be fully prepared to shout at your book or throw it across the room like I did, seriously. Some of the turns that came up had me not believing what I was reading, poor Sally.

It’s been a while since I read a book that had me feeling anxious and worried for a character. I struggled with my feelings for Tom and Kenny, the way things played out made me dislike them for the way they treated Sally, it was incomprehensible. What could possible justify behaving like that towards someone that is on your team? There through the darkness and the light, your biggest advocate. The story was complex, and the final picture would manifest itself and leave Sally and myself reeling. The truth must have been festering within Sally’s mind, how, what, where and when must have turned into a poisoned wound within her mind. Pushing for the truth was bold, but what would she do when she got it?

The authors writing skill is transcendent. The character arcs were fulfilled and brought to fruition. She draws you in and the story delivers a hauntingly devastating tale of betrayal, secrecy and the pace will ensure you buckle your seatbelt because you are in for a hell of a ride!

Sally and Tom enjoy life with three children. Sally has to work part time to make ends meet and during one of her shifts is shown a photograph of her husband and an unknown teenage boy. Sally is told this is toms son.
Shortly after, the boys mother is found muordered.
Many secrets come to light as the hunt for the killer begins. All family members seem to harbour their own secrets, later compromising an abduction.
This book moves at a fast pace with a twist at the end I didn't see coming.
A new author for me but a book I would highly recommend.