Review & Giveaway - Secrets to the Grave - Tami Hoag

Tami Hoag returns with her new book - Secrets to the Grave - another chapter in the lives of the characters originally introduced in last year's thriller Deeper Than the Dead.

Secrets to the Grave opens with a brutal murder scene...

"She lay discarded like a life-sized broken doll - made up, torn up and cast aside, her brown eyes cloudy and lifeless. Beside her lay a smaller doll - her child - head resting on her shoulder, face streaked with the last of her mother's life's blood.

The telephone receiver dangles near the floor, stenciled with small bloody fingerprints. The last words spoken into it were a whisper still hanging in the air: "My daddy hurt my mommy..."

The she in the tableau is Marissa Fordham. Marissa and her daughter Haley were recent additions to the population of Oak Knoll, CA. With a local wealthy patron, Marissa had been making her living as an artist.

Detective Tony Mendez is the lead on the case. He calls in child advocate Anne Leone to protect four year old Haley's interests, with the hope that the child can give them something to go on. Anne herself is still recovering from the brutal attack on her life by the See No Evil killer that terrorized Oak Knoll last year. She is a newlywed, having married Vince Leone, the FBI agent called in to handle that case. Mendez calls in Vince as well to help him with this new horrific case. Their investigation uncovers no records of a Marissa Fordham ever existing before her arrival in Oak Knoll... who was she really, who would have wanted her dead, who is the child's father? Could this case have ties to last year's brutal murders?

I really enjoyed the characters introduced in Deeper Than the Dead and was thrilled to see that Hoag had reprised them and carried on with the story of Oak Knoll. The neat thing is that these books are set in 1986. So, forensic methods and tools such as DNA banks as we know them from current tv shows and current headlines just don't exist yet, although they are hoped for. Mendez and Leone must use 'old fashioned' methods to investigate. I quite enjoyed the 'historical' references to movies, style and culture inserted into the story.

Hoag has created a multi level plot with some red herrings, but also some subtle clues tucked in if you read carefully. Watch for those sneaky little sentences at the ends of the chapters. Details are teased out from each character on the way to the solution - it seems that every one in Oak Knoll has secrets. Fair warning - the crime is somewhat gruesome in description,some readers may be offended.

Hoag has crafted another fast paced, page turning thriller. And I like that the door has been left open for more from these characters! Read an excerpt of Secrets to the Grave.

Secrets to the Grave is on tour with TLC Book Tours - check out what other bloggers are saying.

Secrets to the Grave can certainly be read as a stand alone. But the references to the past case are tantalizing to those who haven't had a chance to read Deeper Than the Dead. So....thanks to the publisher Dutton, one lucky winner has a chance to win a copy of both books!! Simply comment to be entered. Ends Wednesday December 29 at 6 pm EST. Open to US and Canada, no po boxes please.