This title is The Darkest Secret by Alex Marwood

The novel starts with witness statements about a missing 3-year-old twin. It then progresses to past and present. We are inundated with narcissistic adults who are celebrating the 50th birthday of Sean Jackson. There are adults who only want to party and lots of children in the mix.
The family is very inter-involved. Sean is on his second wife and that is not going well. He has 4 daughters, 2 from his first wife and twins from his second wife. On this party weekend, Coco (one of the twins) supposedly disappears and there is a lot of press around finding her. Sean is very well-known for all of his money.
The book goes back and forth from the past to the present and we learn the history of the story.

This was hard to get into at first, but it was worth staying with. The only thing that I found agonizing is that I really had this figured out half-way through. ( )

SWEDISH REVIEW

Den mörkaste hemligheten är den första bok jag har läst av Alex Marwood och kommer inte vara den sista jag tar mig an. Jag älskar mörka psykologiska thrillers och handlingen i denna bok var intressant med en försvunnen liten flicka vars tvillingsyster 12 år senare frågar sin storasyster vad som egentligen hände när de tillsammans åker till deras pappas begravning.

Ja, vad hände egentligen med Coco? Blev hon kidnappad, försvann hon, eller ligger någon av gästerna i huset vid försvinnandet bakom det? Det är några av frågorna jag grubblade över medan jag läste boken. Det är en mörk bok, men inte så mörk som jag hade förväntat mig, mycket pga. av att människorna i boken är så avskyvärda att jag inte förvånades över avslöjanden som kom fram i boken. Boken verkligen kändes som om en studie i människors värsta beteende. Från de som var vidriga i sin hela personlighet till de som med ett falsk leende kunde ljuga och manipulera omgivningen. Kort sagt, jag blev inte så överraskad över vändningarna i storyn pga av att jag redan misstänkte att de flesta människorna i boken var genomruttna och kunde begå vilka som helst brott. De enda som vann sympati var systrarna Ruby och Milly samt Claire när man började känna henne lite mer.

En intressant bok som kändes lite ojämn, speciellt framåt halva boken när jag kände att skiftningarna mellan nutid och dåtid kändes lite segt. Men helt klart en läsvärd bok!

Tack till Modernista för recensionsexemplaret!

ENGLISH REVIEW

The Darkest Secret is the first book I have read by Alex Marwood and it won't be the last. I love dark psychological thrillers and the book was interesting to read. A little girl goes missing and twelve years later her twin sister is questioning her older sister on the way to their father's funeral.

What really happened to Coco? Was she kidnapped, did she disappear or is someone among the guests in the house at the time behind it all? That's some of the questions I was wondering about as I read the book. It's a dark book, just not as dark as I excepted it to be. Most of the people in this book are so rotten that I just didn't get surprised by the revelations that were revealed as I read the book. It felt like reading a study on human behavior, and the worst kind. All from those that have a disgusting personality to those that with a false smile could lie and manipulate everyone around them. In short, I never really got surprised when the story took a twist because I already suspected that most of the people in the book were bad to the bone and could commit any kind of crimes. The only people I found some sympathy for was the sisters Ruby and Milly and later on Claire when one got to know her better.

It's an interesting book that felt a bit uneven to read, especially around half the book when I felt that shifts between past and present started to drag the story a bit. But it's definitely an interesting book to read!

Thanks to Modernista for the review copy! ( )

Sorry voor deze algemene mail maar ik heb jullie hulp hard nodig. Mijn peetdochter, Coco Jackson, verdween uit het­vakantiehuis in Bournemouth waar ze met haar familie verbleef in de nacht van zondag op maandag 29/30 augustus. Opeens was ze er niet meer. Coco is drie jaar oud.

Als Coco, een van een tweeling, tijdens een familieweekend verdwijnt, ontstaat er mediahype. Haar ouders zijn rijk en ­invloedrijk, net als alle vrienden met wie ze op vakantie ­waren dat weekend aan zee. Wat is er echt met Coco gebeurd?
Twaalf jaar later komt het gezelschap weer bij elkaar voor een begrafenis. Coco’s vader is overleden en de onderhuidse spanning is voelbaar. De donkerste geheimen worden langzaam blootgelegd...

Waar is ze? is een donkere, zenuwslopende thriller ­waarin niets is wat het lijkt. Maar het geheim móét verborgen ­blijven. Ten koste van alles…

I would never have thought that I would have enjoyed a book so much with so many intensely selfish and obnoxious characters. It's testament to Alex Marwood's writing that the vileness of the group of friends is the main ingredient for such a dark mouthwatering recipe for disaster that is The Darkest Secret.

Sean Jackson changes wives almost as often as he changes his address. He marries them, has a couple of daughters then moves on to the next woman who catches his eye. When Sean dies suddenly in a compromising position, most befitting his character, we are taken back to 2004. It is Sean's 50th birthday weekend and his friends have gathered with their families for the celebration. During the drinking and debauchery, friendships are tested, relationships are ended and Coco, one of Sean's twin daughters, goes missing.

As the same friends gather for Sean's funeral 12 years later, the strain of keeping secret what really happened to Coco starts to show. With alcohol flowing and reporters hanging round, to what lengths will the friends go to keep the secret buried? Do they all really know what happened to Coco, or do they only know half of the story?

The Darkest Secret is a deliciously dark page turner; there are so many lies and cover-ups that I wasn't even sure what to believe at one point. I would never have guessed what really happened and completely missed the psychopath in the room. I would definitely be checking out Alex Marwood's previous novels and will certainly be looking out for more from such a talented author.

I received this e-book from the publisher, Little, Brown Book Group, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

This is the second book by Alex Marwood that I have read. Great mystery. Most of the characters were priviledged, upper class and totally unlikeable. Not sure the ending satisfied me. Justice was not done. ( )