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    Woman with a Secret: A Novel
    Woman with a Secret: A Novel
    Woman with a Secret: A Novel
    Audiobook14 hours

    Woman with a Secret: A Novel

    Written by Sophie Hannah

    Narrated by David Thorpe and Julia Barrie

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Published in the UK as The Telling Error

    Lisa Gardner calls it "mesmerizing." Liane Moriarty says it's "unpredictable, unputdownable, and unlike anything you've read before." See for yourself what these #1 New York Times-bestselling authors are talking about.

    She's a wife.

    She's a mother.

    She isn't who you think she is.

    Nicki Clements has secrets, just like anybody else—secrets she keeps from her children, from her husband, from everyone who knows her. Secrets she shares with only one person: A stranger she's never seen. A person whose voice she's never heard.

    And then Nicki is arrested for murder. The murder of a man she doesn't know.

    As a pair of husband-and-wife detectives investigate her every word, and as the media circle like sharks, all Nicki's secrets are laid bare—illusions and deceptions that she has kept up for years. And even the truth might not be enough to save her. For although Nicki isn't guilty of homicide, she's far from innocent. . . .

    For fans of The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl, and the best of Hitchcock comes an extraordinary thriller—and an extraordinarily unreliable narrator—from an author whose work has been described by Tana French as "like watching a nightmare come to life."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateAug 4, 2015
    ISBN9780062395641
    Author

    Sophie Hannah

    SOPHIE HANNAH is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous psychological thrillers, which have been published in 51 countries and adapted for television, as well as The Monogram Murders, the first Hercule Poirot novel authorized by the estate of Agatha Christie, and its sequels Closed Casket, The Mystery of Three Quarters, and The Killings at Kingfisher Hill. Sophie is also the author of a self-help book, How to Hold a Grudge, and hosts the podcast of the same name. She lives in Cambridge, UK.

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    Reviews for Woman with a Secret

    3.5/5

    25 ratings18 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Sophie Hannah writes a series of crime novels whose convoluted plots are matched by the convoluted personal lives of the detectives who solve the crimes. And yet, for the most part, it all works well, and with the ninth book in the series, The Telling Error, Hannah is sure-footed and wields a plot even more complex than usual, featuring a disparate cast of characters and a plot based on internet infidelity.This was a fun book to read and it’s a pleasure to read a crime novel by an author who’s been writing them for awhile, but who clearly is still enjoying herself. One does need a certain suspension of disbelief in places (the plot and motivations can be stretched at tlmes), but The Telling Error was still tremendously readable.
    • 4/5
      Last year, Sophie Hannah penned a new Hercule Poirot novel in the style of Agatha Christie. I thought she did a great job writing in the style of Christie but still injecting a bit of her own inflection into the story. That was the first I've read of Hannah's work, so I was eager to pick up her latest North American release, Woman With A Secret. (Note: Woman With A Secret was published in the UK as The Telling Error.)Hannah grabs the reader's attention right off the bat with the opening prologue - a ad on a 'personals' website - looking for a woman who wants to share her secret...."and then there's the sort of intimacy that involves two people sharing nothing more than a secret. An important secret that matters to both of them."...that then goes on to describe an unusual murder scene.Nicki Clements is a woman with a lot of secrets - secrets she never wants to see the light of day. When a noted (and reviled) newspaper columnist is found murdered, Nicki is driving near the crime area. Her very attempt to avoid the police check in the neighbourhood brings her to the attention of Detective Chief Simon Waterhouse and his team. But Nicki is not the only person of interest.Hannah provides the reader with a plethora of suspects, each with their own reason to want Damon Blundy dead. A number of Blundy's vitriolic columns are inserted between chapters. But, it is Nicki in the reader's forefront. She hints at her past, at events and happenings that only serve to keep the reader turning pages. " Being bad and getting away with it: there's not feeling like it." But is she telling us the truth? Nicki is a self proclaimed liar - always has been. (Unreliable narrators are all the rage these days.)There are numerous characters to keep track of in the both the investigation and the investigators. I admit to feeling slightly overwhelmed with all of them and their personal histories. It was only after finishing the book that I discovered that this was the 9th book in the Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer series. I did quite like these two characters - and a few others in the department, but everyone else was quite despicable and ugly in nature.Hannah is a clever, clever writer both in prose and plotting. Her character studies are quite fascinating. However, I must admit, by the final pages I just wanted to be finished - I had grown weary of all the convoluted machinations by every player. And there were a few loose ends not quite tied up. (Yes, I'm one of those people who wants everything and everyone accounted for by The End.)Woman With A Secret was a middle of the road read for me. Not fantastic, but not terrible.
    • 4/5
      A delightfully complex murder mystery that reads almost like a parody of Horowitz's murder mysteries. Nicki Clements, the woman of the title, freely admits to telling lies, so one never quite knows where the narration will lead. Refreshingly the reader doesn't seem to be the focus of the lies. I quite enjoy the detectives determination to think through the mystery, not rely on the latest scientific advancements.
    • 4/5
      Hard book to rate. Enjoyed most of it, but it seemed to go on and on at some points. Good storyline and well written. The story focused more on the relationships than the actual crime. I’d really give it 3.5.
    • 3/5
      Set in England, it begins with a personal ad searching for the woman with a secret. It describes a bizarre murder scene and then moves onto a world of secrecy, lies, adultery, and deception.
    • 2/5
      This is a psychological thriller which I really did not care for. A first time read of this author and it will be the last. The book just kept going off on different tangents that were just wrote to take up space. I just could not finish the book. This was a advanced copy and I really hated to give it such a low rating but it was just not for me
    • 3/5
      So so. The author is hailed as the modern day heir to Agatha Christie, but the novel was so inundated with layperson psychology, I found it rather tiresome. A yawn. Most interesting thing about the book was the 'modern' theme of the effect of internet communication on problematic personalities.
    • 2/5
      nice idea, but it drags on and on and somewhere along the way loses its appeal. police characters remain confusing till the end.
    • 4/5
      Woman with a Secret by Sophie Hannah is a highly recommended police procedural.

      In this latest case featuring British police officers DC Simon Waterhouse and his wife, DS Charlie Zailer, there has been a murder of a well-known columnist on Elmhirst Road in Spilling. Damon Blundy may have been well known, but he was also controversial and combative. He was killed in a way that seemed to be sending a symbolic message, but what could the message mean? And then there are the actual words painted on the wall saying, "He is no less dead." The list of enemies should be extensive, but the investigation takes notice of one car, being driven by Nicki Clements, a woman in her early forties who makes a U-turn to avoid where the police are stopping every car up ahead.

      Nicki, who is trying to run an errand to her children's school, sees a cop she wants to avoid seeing again at all costs. The big question is why? What secret is Nicki trying to hide? Because Nicki's erratic behavior is captured on CCTV she is called in for questioning. Clearly, when Nicki is answering questions, she is also trying to cover up something. She has a secret, but does it have anything to do with Blundy's murder?

      As part of Nicki's secrets and lies are clear to the reader, the question is how or if they are related to the case. We do know Nicki has been going online and is conducting an affair, at this point just through email, with "Gavin" after previously having another affair with someone she met online.

      Parts of this story are told through Nicki, her email correspondence with Gavin, the police investigation, and Blundy's columns. It opens with a personal ad placed on a dating site that invites speculation, but is also deceptive. And that deception, the lies and secrets, are what makes up a great deal of this novel and keeps you guessing what is real and what isn't.

      Hannah does an excellent job capturing the present world where we are all online, social media abounds, CCTV surveillance is common, and there are plenty of columnists that revel in being nasty and/or combative as they name names and throw accusations. It seems that everyone is striving to be more connected. She does an excellent job depicting this world where we are either trying to stand out more and set ourselves apart from the pack or we are conducting a secret life online.

      The real treat to this well written novel is Simon and Charlie. Their complex relationship, interaction, and thought processes as they work together are what kept me reading.

      Nicki is an unreliable narrator as well as an unlikeable character. In fact there are many unlikeable characters in this novel. So many nasty people, with the exception of Simon and Charlie, could leave you with no one to cheer for or at least hope it works out for them. On the up side, though, it also provides plenty of suspects and clues to follow in order to figure out who done it and why.

      Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher and TLC for review purposes.
    • 3/5
      I started reading this book at work where it was called "A Woman With a Secret" and finished it at home on my Kobo when it was called "The Telling Error". I'm not sure why Sophie Hannah or her publishers insist on her books having two names but it sure is confusing.
    • 2/5
      This dual-focused story revolves around both the murder of odious columnist Damon Blundy and the completely self-absorbed Nicki Clements, who seems to live her life in a web of carefully-constructed lies. What is her connection to the murdered columnist? Is it possible that she’s the one who murdered the newspaperman? Does she know something that would explain the cryptic clues left at the crime scene? Sophie Hannah has a way with words, and her often-mesmerizing descriptions are achingly lovely. Despite wanting to love her book, some readers are likely to find the complicated manner in which this story is told to be a bit off-putting and solving the “who and how” mystery is not quite enough to counter the fact that everyone who populates this tedious tale is dysfunctional and unlikeable.
    • 3/5
      I received an advanced reader copy of this book. I generally enjoy Sophie Hannah's books and this was no exception. I would actually give it 3.5 stars. It's a great mystery/suspense novel that you won't be able to stop reading because you will want to know who did it. There were a few unnecessary plot points - that's what lead to 3.5 stars instead of 4. There was a lot of buildup about something traumatic in Nicki's childhood that didn't amount to anything and wasn't relevant to the story. I also found her husband's reaction to her confession unbelievable. It's a fast paced book that will keep you on your toes - if you enjoy a good mystery, this book is worth reading.
    • 1/5
      I started out with high hopes for this one, billed as it is as a psychological thriller.

      Sadly it was, well, rather tedious. The (too?) many characters are one-dimensional, irritating and highly unlikeable, and as for the plot, well, I think psychological farce would be a better description. And the ending is terrible. That's the second ending. The first ending comes as welcome relief, but then you discover there's another chapter. Another, totally unnecessary chapter, that answers a question I'd completely forgotten had been asked, and that was, as far as I can see, completely irrelevant.

      Not one I'd recommend.
    • 1/5
      Let me be blunt here and tell you that I did not enjoy this novel at all. There are a whole host of reasons and I'm struggling in choosing where to start. There were way too many characters introduced in very quick succession. Perhaps, if I had read the previous books in the series, I wouldn't have been so overwhelmed but there were still too many potential killers with not nearly enough character development; I felt like I barely got to know anything about their personalities, and as such, they remained very one-dimensional. I thought the whole premise behind the story was absolutely pointless. Nicki Clements is a character that I cannot tolerate, and all she did was create problems when there were none. I also did not like the character of the main detective; he was always in his own thoughts and he just HAD to make the big reveal in the most anti-climactic way possible. The whole story didn't really make sense and didn't need to happen, and the motive of the killer was just ... nonsensical. After finishing the novel, I was stunned at how pointless it all was. I think I'm just going to stop here and simply say that I would not recommend this novel to anyone. I'm probably also not going to pursue any of the novels in this series.
    • 5/5
      Sophie Hannah writes the most wonderful, broken, sometimes despicable characters that are compulsively readable. Woman With A Secret continues that tradition with another flawed character who has truth issues and the quirky detectives trying to figure out a twisty murder.Hannah has the gift of making you keep turning the pages not just to solve the murder, but to find out what the characters are hiding. What I find unique about her is not her ability to write unlikeable characters, but her ability to fill her pages with nothing but unlikeable characters and still have you keep turning the pages to find out what happens to them.Woman With a Secret starts when Nicki Clements conspicuously avoids going through a police checkpoint that happens to be in place in front of a murder scene where the words “HE IS NO LESS DEAD” have been left on the wall. Nicki’s involvement, if any, as well as the meaning behind the cryptic message propel the novel forward. Nicki’s habitual lying both hinders and helps the investigation, as the search for her secrets becomes intertwined with unraveling the murder.Zailer and Waterhouse, the married police officers investigating the crime - only one officially on the case- are an interesting case study in themselves. Neither is particularly likeable, nor are their family and friends, but the dynamic seems to work. There is a certain amount of insight on each of their parts to unwind alibis and uncover motives, but largely it is dogged police work.A large part of the novel is spent with Nicki and her life of complicated lies. Her secret life, as well as the life of the murder victim, make for a very interesting read. Her most closely guarded secret along with the identity of the murderer are ultimately not that exciting but the journey to them is. Sophie Hannah has a real gift for creating a true mystery. Less in a “whodunit” sense than in a “what the hell is going on here” way. The fun is in the way each revelation makes you question what is happening about a dozen times between the first page and the last. Highly recommended.I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book.
    • 4/5
      Nikki finds herself accused of a murder she didn't commit, but because she is addicted to lying, can't tell the police (or anyone else) the details that could help clear her for fear they will learn other terrible secrets she's been keeping. There's some interesting characters, and we are introduced to a rather large collection of them who could have committed the murder. I felt a bit like I was watching a TV movie, and it would all make sense eventually. As I read about various suspects, I kept thinking "she did it," no, "he did it," no, wait, these two did it together. There are certain odd details about the murder and we are meant to keep wondering why it was done in just that way--and I did wonder. And it didn't make sense until the very end. So, mixed review.
    • 4/5
      Even the worst of Zalier/Waterhouse beats most everything else for me. Not my favorite, this one was made too complicated by way, way too many characters. Not much progress made on the marriage either. SPOILERS: but the Gibbs/Liv twist turns out to be relevant to the one of the side motives in the case - the desire of people to keep the high of their early love/meetings/attraction pure by avoiding everyday life together, or, as a character says: "pulling hairs out of the drain."
    • 3/5
      A very entertaining mystery novel. I listened to this one as an audiobook and I found the suspense and the dual narration (split between one of the suspects and the third-person perspective of the police) made for excellent pacing throughout the book. A very satisfying story and highly recommended for those who enjoyed Girl on the Train and the like.