Two Can Keep a Secret

The author behind the hit One of Us is Lying is back with her sophomore novel, Two Can Keep a Secret. Welcome to Echo Ridge, where Karen McManus dives into a multi-layered story about small town secrets, power, and missing girls.

Ellery and Ezra’s mom, Sadie, left Echo Ridge years ago, after her own twin sister went missing. Now, Sadie’s in rehab and Ellery and Ezra are coming to Echo Ridge to live with their grandmother. It’s been five years since another girl went missing, Lacey the homecoming queen, and the town is still reeling from the unsolved mystery. Not that there are suspects, suspects who still feel the heat from the town. But everyone thinks the past is the past: until suspicious messages start showing up around town, threatening to repeat history. Which homecoming queen will it be this year? Ellery and Ezra and their friends, who both have close ties to the crime that happened five years ago, are determined to get to the bottom of things, but will they get there too late? When another homecoming queen wannabe goes missing, the race is on to find her and figure out what the hell is happening in Echo Ridge.

This book is mutli-layered, with a little mystery coming from every angle. Who is Ellery’s father? Why did her mom leave? What happened to her aunt Sarah? What happened to Lacey? Why is the prime suspect in Lacey’s death back in town? What’s hidden in the recycling bin? Who did the hit-and-run that begins the book? So many questions to unravel and wow, McManus delivers as she unravels. I wasn’t as shock-surprised by the ending because tbh, I expect the worse out of everyone and watch too much Law and Order SVU, but I still really enjoyed this book.I couldn’t wait to see all the dots get connected!

A lot of people have “questions” about the last line…but I think it’s pretty darn clear and I love that twist in the story, that way to intertwine another aspect of the story into the overarching dramatic conclusion. Well done! Can’t wait until McManus’ next book, the sequel to One of Us is Lying. Finger’s crossed for Three’s Company, or something like that. I like the sequential number title’s. Mostly because one day we’ll get to Seven Deadly Sins.