It's been quite a few years since I read a Marilyn Pappano novel. I don't know how or why her books fell off my radar, but happily, everything I always liked about her novels, the character development, the plot, the emotion, has gotten even better but quite a bit darker in Killer Secrets, and it gets a 4-star rating from this reader.

Killer Secrets has quite an unusual opening--a memoir about an abused 11-year-old girl, entitled The Unlucky Ones by Jane Gama, which flows right into the present day life of 26-year-old, Mila Ramirez, who is an employee at a lawn care service in the hellish heat of an Oklahoma summer. As she heads around to the back garden she's been tending, she's surprised to spot whom she guesses is the wealthy homeowner, a man she's never met in the three years she's been working on his gardens. He's sitting in a chaise at poolside, and it doesn't take her long to realize that he's been murdered. The police are called to the scene, and that's how and when Mila meets the hero in this novel, tall, handsome, Police Chief Sam Douglas.

We soon learn that Mila is the abused daughter of her two sick, and twisted serial killer parents, that her father and mother beat her, and used her as a means to lure unsuspecting women to their torturous death, but with the help of her Gramma, she managed to escape from their clutches when she was eleven years old. Fifteen years have gone by since then, and although she witnessed her parents' death in a fiery crash as their car hit a concrete abutment at high speed as they were chasing the car she and her Gramma were fleeing in, she's still not free of the emotional damage they caused. She's close to no one except her grandmother, Jessica, and her dog, Poppy. She has no friends, no social life, no connection to her co-workers, and she trusts no one. She never talks about her past, in fact, she rarely talks at all, yet Sam is attracted to her beauty and intrigued by both her fragility and her strength under terrifying circumstances.

In short order, Mila is present at the home of another wealthy client, who is soon found murdered in his vegetable garden by his cook. There are no clues as to the identity of the killer, but Sam finds it odd that Mila has been present at both murder scenes, and certainly considers her a person of interest, both personally and professionally. When Mila's dog is kidnapped and released, and Mila is attacked and nearly drowned and killed by an unseen assailant while swimming in a nearby river, Sam begins to realize that the murders are not random at all, that a serial killer is on the loose, and that Mila is the both the target of, and at the center of these mysterious murders, and she brings out every protective instinct Sam possesses.

This novel is far darker in tone than any of the earlier novels I'd read by Ms. Pappano. The intermittent story within a story gives us the particulars of the horrific life the unnamed author experienced as a child in graphic detail, and it may be a bit too graphic for some readers. While I very much liked the construction of this novel, and the slowly developing relationship between Sam and Mila, I wished there had been some clues as to the identity of the mysterious assailant, primarily because while this novel falls under the romantic suspense category, it was far more of a mystery/suspense novel than it was a romance.

The pace of this novel is rather slow throughout, and the author keeps you guessing as to the identity of the villain and the reason for the attacks and murders, but when the denouement finally arrives it's a shocker, and the ending is so surprising, and so abrupt as to be jarring, seemingly coming out of nowhere. It's the abruptness of the ending, the fact that there were no clues leading up to it, and the incomplete explanation we're given for it in retrospect, that kept me from giving this novel a 5-star rating. There is an HEA ending for Sam and Mila, but while Mila is a fully fleshed-out character, I did find myself also wishing for more of Sam's backstory, since all we know about him is his current job, that he was once in the army, and that he's clearly the good guy he appears to be.

All in all, this was a very good read about a very dark subject, and while I enjoyed it, there were a few things that kept me from loving it.

I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.

Tormented intrigue! A powerful plot takes us on an emotional journey of second chances and overcoming trauma. The characters are really easy to like and grab out attention quickly. The plot is disturbingly unique and has the potential to be great ... while it falls a little flat in some parts, it's still a really interesting read!

Mila Ramirez has worked hard to overcome her past, but she's afraid it's suddenly coming back to haunt her! Getting past a childhood raised by twisted serial killer parents was hard enough, but now dead bodies seem to be turning up around her and bringing all of those ugly memories rushing to her mind! Is this somehow about her? And if so, who has set their sights on tormenting her ... and why?

It doesn't take long for police chief Sam Douglas to realize there's more to Mila than meets the eye. He sort of takes her under his wing to ease her discomfort after the first crime scene surfaces, and winds up really liking her. But there seems to be some connection to her and murders ... can he figure out what it is before another body shows up?

Mila managed to escape her serial killer parents with the help of her grandmother. Its been a long time since then and shes adopted a new name and is living a quite life until she finds the dead body of the person she was gardening for. When a second body ends up coming around and shes attacked Police Chief Sam is on the case to help this women and find out what is going on.



I really enjoyed this book! This book was pretty unexpected because while the case was going on assumptions can be made and who it turned out to be was surprising to me. I loved that this book managed to surprise me. I loved seeing the connection between the two and I was pretty curious to see what was going to happen when Milas big secret would come out and possibly bite her in the butt for not talking about it sooner. This was was a pretty good mystery, romantic suspense book I really enjoyed it.

Wow. I thought Marilyn's love stories were great...this was the best one yet!

Killer Secrets by Marilyn Pappano is an amazing book! It's been a few years since I read anything from Marilyn Pappano, but this book reminded me why I love this writer. Killer Secrets is the story of Mila and Sam. Sam is the Chief of Police in the small city were Mila lives and works. Mila and Sam meet as a result of Mila finding a dead body while working for a client and pretty soon more bodies and incidents occur linking Mila's past to the killer and Mila is forced to remember events from her childhood which she wishes she could forget. Mila is an amazing character she has faced a horrible childhood and managed to survive it, but not intact as she has isolated herself from most of the world around her, but Sam's caring and attention start bringing her back and Mila and Sam begin a beautiful love story. Sam's cop friends are quite fun and I hope to see more of this characters in other books by Marilyn Pappano!

This book was amazing! It's been a long time that I enjoyed a read in which it satisfied my "mystery" & "romance" crave! Both the story & the characters are well developed that I read it in one sitting!