Every Secret Thing

By: Laura Lippman

Narrated by: Celeste Ciulla

One of mystery writing's most acclaimed novelists for her brilliant Tess Monaghan series, Laura Lippman won the Anthony and Barry Awards for this riveting stand-alone.

Kicked out of a birthday party, 11-year-olds Alice and Ronnie walk home and encounter a baby left in a carriage. Their earnest desire to do a good deed ends tragically, however, and seven years later they are released from "kid prison" to start their lives anew.

©2003 Laura Lippmann (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Lippman has won just about every mystery writing award there is - the Edgar, the Agatha, the Anthony, the Shamus, and the Nero Wolfe - for her Tess Monaghan series. This is her first stand-alone mystery, one in which the detectives are consigned to bit parts....Lippman doesn't write a standard whodunit here but plays with reader expectations of what should happen next. A startling page-turner." ( Booklist)

Average storyline. Narration was annoying.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It helped pass time on a long drive.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The basic story of the young girls kidnapping a baby was interesting.
The female police officer story line was not interesting -- the dialogue was between the police seemed stilted and unrealistic. The character of Helen Manning was not believable -- mainly because she was undeveloped.

Would you be willing to try another one of Celeste Ciulla’s performances?

No.

Was Every Secret Thing worth the listening time?

No.

Killer kids?

Loved the twist! The person I thought was the evil one wasn’t evil at all!!!

Guilty or not?

This was a great story. It had me on edge most of the time. I went back and forth on who was innocent and who was guilty. In the end, the guilty were not the ones I thought were guilty in the beginning. But I cared about all the characters.

Devoured it!

Any additional comments?

Great story, good mystery, and superb narration! I devoured this book! I thought the narrator was extremely talented -- was surprised that others thought otherwise. I consider myself very picky with narration. Ciulla had distinct voices befitting the various characters. Very engaging! Read it in two days. This was my first Lippman book; I look forward to reading some of her others!!!

Horrible narration

Any additional comments?

It sounds like a Kindergarten teacher reading to her students. The themes, dialogue, and content just sounded wrong in such a whimsical voice. The story was pretty good. I imagine it would be a good book to read on a plane or at the beach. Terrible listen, however...

Love it

I loved the movie and I loved the book. It was very good and I enjoyed it.

I really wanted to like this book

There were a lot of things that bothered me about this book. First, the storyline, at least for the first two-thirds of the book, was not terribly interesting. Moreover, the author used stereotypes of fat people, black people, Latinos, and poor white people throughout. The narration was also annoying. The voices that the actor used were also stereotypical and in addition to mispronouncing some words, simply didn't match the characters.

loved the story did not like the narration

I loved this story so much that despite the fact that the narrator sounded like she was in an echo chamber I listened till the very end. very good book.

So good! I liked the narrator

I worried about getting this 1 as the comments about the narrator were negative BUT I thought that that book was amazing, and the narrator was good and didn’t bother me at all. Well worth the credit

The movie was better.

Would you try another book from Laura Lippman and/or Celeste Ciulla?

Laura Lippman ... yes.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Nancy ... she seemed to be the only character that had honest, empathetic emotions.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Celeste Ciulla?

Diane Lane

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

I saw it prior to reading the book. The movie DISTURBED me. Presuming the book would provide more details, I immediately purchased it. The movie, by far, was SO MUCH BETTER!

Any additional comments?

WATCH THE MOVIE ... it follows the book and tells the story in a far more entertaining, but dark way.