Book Review: Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag

About:

“Secrets to the Grave” by Tami Hoag (Website | Facebook | Twitter) is a fictional mystery featuring the recurring characters we met in “Deeper than the Dead” (Buy | book review).  The novel takes place in the same town of Oak Knoll, CA and is set in the mid 1980’s.

Dutton has made available both copies of “Deeper than the Dead” and “Secrets to the Grave” to be given to one lucky winner – enter below.

• 464 pages
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dutton
  
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 052595192X

My rating for Secrets to the Grave – 3
Buy Secrets to the Grave from Amazon.com*
More books by Tami Hoag*

 

What Secrets? Buy the book and find out…

Thoughts:

“Secrets to the Grave” by Tami Hoag (Website | Facebook )is a well written book, while “Deeper than the Dead” was about families breaking apart, “Secrets to the Grave” seem to be about families coming together.  The strength of the book comes from the interaction of the well developed characters.  The mystery was not as involved as the previous book, I figured out who the killer is a bit before the ¾ mark.  However, I found the side stories much more compelling; the dilemmas Anne Navarre finds herself in are fascinating and thought provoking.

I’d certainly recommend reading “Deeper than the Dead” first even though it is not a necessity, but you’ll enjoy this book more  and have a better understanding of the characters and their interaction, which as I mentioned is the strong point of this book.

Tami Hoag is a gifted author, her narrative flows and her style is both unique and easy to digest.   The multi-tier (n-tier for all you IT folks) plot of the book is both interesting and fast paced.  As a child of the 80s I certainly enjoyed all the puns and shots at the pop-culture icons, as well as the lack of CSI technology.  To this day I remember the debate around DNA and how it will be used in the court of law.

Synopsis:

While still trying to recover from the “See-no-evil” serial killer which shook the small town of Oak Knoll, CA a year ago, another gruesome murder has been committed.  Marissa Fordham is a mysterious resident of Oak Knoll, she is murdered and Haley, her four year old daughter, the only witness, barely survives.

The sheriff’s office has procured the services of FBI agent and profiling expert Vince Leone, who happen to fall in love with fifth grade teacher teacher Anne Navarre and stay in town. Detective Tony Menedez heads up the investigation and uses his human resources well.

Together Tony and Vince piece together a mystery which involves Oak Knoll’s elites while Anne is trying to restore the memory of Hayley to point out the killer.  But is Anne doing Hayley a favor? Is the memory of a four year old can be trusted?

Agents and Teachers and Cops – oh my! Buy the book here*
More books by Tami Hoag*

Rules:

• This is a “twofer” – Contest is for one (1) new copy of “Deeper than the Dead” and one (1) new copy of “Secrets to the Grave”.
  
• There will be ONE (1) WINNER
  
• Must be a US mailing Address
  
• Ends Monday December 27, 2010
• Winners will be chosen using Random.org
  
• Winners will have 24 hours after my initial contact to write back their mailing address, otherwise alternate winners will be picked

Buy Secrets to the Grave from Amazon.com*
More books by Tami Hoag*

Congratulations to justpeachy36@
Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I got this book for free as part of the TLC Book Tour promotion.
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books