Every Secret Thing is a chilling mystery by Laura Lippman. Wow! Two 11 year old girls kidnap a baby and they are responsible for the death of the child. The book jumps back and forth in time with excellent clarity for maximum suspense. Most of the book takes place after the girls are released fro prison. Tons of well developed characters that make this a real kindle page swiper. Well earned red herrings.

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Ugh. Another fat=evil/weak book. ( )

I don't think I liked how this ended. Lots of twists in the plot, but I just didn't care for the ending. ( )

One of the more disturbing stories Lippman has to offer. It focuses on two girls who were sent to juvenile detention centers for killing a baby. We meet Nancy, a young detective with something to prove. We also meet the mother of the baby who was kidnapped, then killed. We meet the mothers of the girls, along with other peripheral characters.

The two girls, Alice and Ronnie, are released from detention on their eighteenth birthdays, seven years after being sent away. Both return to their homes in the same community. Alice has gained weight, is now large and resentful. After all, she did not actually kill the baby, she has continually pointed out. Ronnie is the one with the temper, the "bad girl" who started it all. Alice's defense lawyer suggests walking as a form of exercise that might help Alice with her weight. She takes the hint and spends hours on the streets every day. Meanwhile, Ronnie finds a job at a donut shop, where nobody knows her. In fact, few people know who the girls are because privacy laws protected their identities.

Then the unthinkable happens. A three-year-old child is kidnapped. It is the third or fourth "disappearance" since the two came home, but the others had all been found within hours. This time the child is not found. The mother of the baby who was killed insists that the police focus on the two girls. She points out that the three-year-old looks remarkably like her own second child. Do the girls have it in for her?

Is anything as it seems? Perhaps not. I was pretty much on the edge of my seat reading this, hoping for a resolution that did not involve the girls, hoping for answers that absolved them at last. I won't tell you if my hopes were dashed or not. Wouldn't be fair, would it? ( )

can't rate this one - didn't finish it. It's just a personal issue, I guess... can't take that much death and threat towards children.