I recently finished reading Deadly Secrets from Pond Island by Olivia Raymond. This story is full of small-town secrets and a potentially huge cover-up from 30 years ago. It’s the beginning of a series, but it’s the only published book in the series so far.
Story Outline
Vanessa Hutchins was a successful lawyer in a big city. After visiting a friend in a small town, Vanessa realizes she doesn’t want to be stuck in her current life. She heads home, quits her job, and buys a house in a small town without seeing the house first.
Soon after arriving in this small town, Vanessa meets an assortment of odd characters. One of the oddest, perhaps is the house she’s purchased. The house is full of junk, as in Hoarders quality junk. With help from some of her new neighbors, she clears out the house. In the process, she discovers that the house might be hiding something more than just a hoarder’s trash.
Thoughts on the Characters
This was a good book. I feel like the characters are the heart of the story. Vanessa is instantly a likable character as are several of the other people we meet along the way. My one complaint concerning characters is that it was a bit hard to keep some of the characters straight. While there aren’t a lot of major characters, three of them have names that start with “V” (Vanessa, Virgil, and Vernon). There were a few times when I got Virgil and Vernon confused. Maybe, other readers don’t have an issue with this. I just feel like it’s easier to keep characters straight if there aren’t any similar names.
Was This a Small Town Mystery?
While this is a mystery, I felt like a lot of the mystery was a bit too obvious. I would have preferred if there had been more of a mystery. I feel like it’s pretty clear early on who’s involved in the cover-up. The only real plot twist happens at the end of the book, and that’s kind of discovered and resolved fairly quickly.
Reader Warnings
This book does have some swearing. There are probably about ten swear words total. When it comes to violence, most of the violence is behind the scenes. The one big exception is that characters smack each other upside the head a few times throughout the story.
Spoiler About Potentially Sensitive Subject
This is a bit of a spoiler, but it’s also a warning to readers, so read on at your own risk. This book does talk about child abuse, including sexual abuse and child trafficking. It doesn’t go into a lot of detail, but it could be a difficult subject for some readers.
Final Thoughts on This Small Town Mystery
While I actually generally enjoy small town amateur detective series, I’m not sure that I’ll read other books in this series once they come out. I don’t feel like this needs to be part of a series. The best way that I can explain that is to say that Vanessa’s too smart to become one of those small town unofficial detectives who get in the way of police investigations (as generally happens in these types of series).
