'm pretty much always game for a mystery and I thought this one had an intriguing premise. This wasn't just an ordinary missing person case instead it involved three college age females. They are friends with each other and all 3 vanish without a trace on the same day. What's going on? So right away I was interested in finding out what happened and while I wouldn't say this ranks among my favorite mysteries, it still is a fairly decent one in the genre.

This one did not do it for me. I wasn't able to really feel the main character to much. It all around felt bland while I was trying my hardest to get into it. I found myself thinking of other books that were to be read than actually being able to give my full attention to this one. Not my kind of thriller I suppose.

Fabulous plot which I could not put down. Brilliant characters, and twists and turns. Highly recommend to other fans of this genre!!

3.5 stars.

Quite good read, really! In truth, I might go for 4 stars, but I do not like the main romantic guy character.
But while the romance is a bit cheesy, the guy too vanilla Hallmark hero and there is certain smalltown naivity present, the story is actually quite interesting and well-written, and I have enjoyed it muchly.

Three girls are missing from town of Kelly's Falls. 23-year-old homicide detective Shea O'Connor is called to go undercover as a new student at local college, posing as a police chief's niece, to try to investigate the smalltown secrets. Shea herself is still mentally fragile from her last murder case, which can both help the case (she is believable as a young girl, plus she can relate to the local people hurt by the case) and not-so-much-help - as she can attract other damaged people. And she does that - including Nick, the brother of one of the missing girls.
The case is hard to solve as there are no clues. The solution might be hidden with the secrets big and small of the lives of local people...

I loved Shea's uncertainties, pains and complexes, she is relatable that way - as she is not only a capable cop, but also a young woman confronted with both life 's harsher realities and the simple feelings, which might distract her from the case. This aspect was particularly well-done (the authoress is retired cold case homicide detective, so she might be writing from the point of experience).
The mystery aspect was also quite smartly designed and played - the situation is tough, the red herrings are believable and the villain/s are very logically chosen when looking back at the plot.
So, only the romance was not my cup of tea. But it might be my preference for the bad boys with secretly good hearts.

I will follow this authoress from now on.

Crime mystery is usually hit or miss for me but I really enjoyed this one! It had me turning page after page and staying up later than I probably should have!

⭐️⭐️⭐️The Secrets They Left Behind - Lisa Marie Redmond


Thank you @netgalley for the gifted copy in exchange of an honest review.

When three girls disappear into thin air, officer Shea O’Connor is asked to help find leads on the case by going undercover. Given that the last time she went undercover nearly cost her her life, she had a few reservations. Shea is determined to do what it takes to find these three girls, while trying to maintain her own safety.


🌲🌲🌲

I really loved the main character, Shea, she is very likeable and I was immediately drawn to her! The overall premise of The Secrets They Kept was also a major win for me, I loved the small town setting. While I will say parts of the story dragged for me, the ending was excellent and I did not see the twist coming!


If you enjoy procedural crime novels, you’re not going to want to miss this one!

The Secrets They Left Behind tells the story of Shea, a Buffalo police officer who goes undercover in the town of Kelly's Falls to try to uncover 3 girls who went missing almost 3 months prior to her arrival. She had worked undercover once before on a serial killer case that almost ended very badly for her. Can Shea earn the trust of the community to find out what happened to three girls? Will she get too close?

I really enjoyed this book. The idea of a cop going undercover like this is very new to me in the procedural genre and I really loved it. Shea is a very human and relatable character who battles her own past and demons full on. I loved how her investigative style was very unconventional. Her ability to fully understand and value human connection in investigation was amazing. I loved the character of Nick. Every small town has one of those and I loved seeing his brokenness displayed in such a raw way. The ending of this book had me at the edge of my seat and I could not wait to figure out what was going on! This book has the ability to keep you guessing until the very end. I had my theories and red flags in my head but I still missed it!! Such a good read for fans of police procedural's and mysteries!

I was able to read this book thanks to NetGalley. It was an entertaining and quick paced thriller and I really enjoyed it.. I was very invested in the story and the characters. I will be on the lookout for more books by this author and I will be recommending this one to fellow book lovers. Thanks again to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Lissa Marie Redmond has established her place in the mystery/thriller genre. I look forward to more work from this writer.

Shea O'Connor is settling back into work at the local Police station in Buffalo after her latest stint when the FBI borrowed her to work undercover to find a serial killer almost got her killed as she found herself in the crosshairs of the killer. Now she has been contacted again by Bob who works at the FBI as they have had three girls go missing around Christmas/New Year Break and the leads have all dried up and no-one can locate or find out anything about them. As Shea looks young, she is headed back to Community College in the smalltown under the pretense of the local Police Chief's niece. Here she will get to know the girls' friends and who they hung around etc and try and solve either the crime or at least a location of where the girls are/have disappeared too. I enjoyed this mystery as Shea starts to uncover some dark secrets that some of the townspeople would love to keep secret. The only thing that I didn't enjoy was that in a way, the girls at the end got a happy ending when the crime was solved but not necessarily the happy ending that we expect in crime novels especially when it comes to stories of missing persons/ teens. Overall, I did enjoy the twists and turns of The Secrets they Left Behind. If you are wanting a mystery that ends with a happy ending, then this isn't the book but if you want one where justice is served, then The Secrets They Left Behind by Lissa Marie Redmond is the read for you.

I enjoyed this book a good deal more than I expected. Just when I thought I knew who the "bad guy" was...nope!
While I couldn't relate to the main character, me not being a 20-something cop, I was intrigued by her faux relationship to the Chief. It's an engrossing story with fairly well-drawn characters. Never boring, the action picked up in the last third, and I read the last half in one sitting. I rather enjoyed the ending too.
Read it and you'll see what I mean.

Perfect for who-dunnit fans!

First of all the plot was what grabbed me in the first place. It was great that the author didnt make everything obvious . It had lots of twists to keep you on your toes. The writing style was very good it held your interest.

I wanted to love this book so much. The synopsis is right up my alley. I love mysteries and thrillers. That being said, I didn't love it. The characters all felt so bland and impersonal. I couldn't connect to any of them. The plot moved so slowly that I lost track of the times I spaced out while reading it. I found myself thinking more about what I would read next than this actual story. To make things worse, I saw the ending less than halfway through the book, so I got to spend all of this time on a book when I already knew what would happen. I'm bummed. I really wanted to love this one but I just didn't.

Three college-aged girls vanish into thin air after a party and nearly two months later, there’s been no progress in the investigation. So the FBI sends in Buffalo police officer Shea O’Conner - posing as Shea Anderson, whose mission is to pose as an 18-year-old college freshman and befriend the missing girls’ friends and live their lives, all in an effort to find out what might have happened to them. Because while everyone seems to talk constantly about the girls, no one really talks about them, you know? So Shea’s got to dig deep and find out what everyone’s hiding. And they’re hiding a lot.

I grew up and still currently live in a small town and this description of an upstate New York small town was probably one of the most spot-on ones that I have ever read. The connections that everyone has to each other, the fact that everyone always hangs out in the same places, the fact that you can’t ever sneak things because everyone knows you and your parents and your friends, is s accurate. So many times people get that wrong, They romanticize things, like picnics and fun festivals and everyone’s friends! But it’s not all that. It’s going to the same pizza place a hundred times because that’ the only one that’ open. And Going to school with the same people for 12 years. This book gets it.

Anyway, The main mystery i also really good. I can’t say that I was shocked at the ending, because there were some strong hints in there, but there were some nice twists. There were also some creepy element that made me shiver a little bit thinking about them - but I can’t really explain that too much more. But I was really sucked in waiting to confirm any suspicions I had and waiting to see what was coming next.

I also really enjoyed getting to know Shea and am hoping to see more of her. She was a really good character and I enjoyed seeing her character development throughout the book - she has some reservations about what she’s doing in terms of the morality of ingratiating herself with the girls;’ friends to get information from them. I thought that was really interesting.

If you enjoy a good mystery/thriller, this is a great book to enjoy over a weekend. It took me about two days to zoom through. ENJOY!

Interesting premise and more than just a missing person case with three friends vanishing without a trace on the same day. Nothing to set this apart too much from other thrillers, but overall a decent read.

Shea O'Connor is a young police detective in Buffalo. She is recruited to go undercover to help solve the case of three college girls who disappeared without a trace from a small rural town called Kelly's Falls. This is a fun and interesting mystery. Love the descriptions of the setting. The novel is well-written. Redmond has great character development so you really get to know the characters. The plot takes many twists and turns - suspenseful Major secrets in this small town and someone is killing to keep things quiet. It is a fun and entertaining read!

Three female college girls go missing while in their hometown during Christmas break. he girls left behind their phones, purses, coats .... and there is no trace of them anywhere.

When the case turns cold, Police Officer Shea O'Connor is recruited to go undercover. Still bearing the emotional and physical scars of a previous case, O'Connor infiltrates as eighteen-year-old Shea Anderson, a college freshman and the "niece" of the town's police chief.

Shea is getting nowhere with her investigation, and it's getting harder and harder to keep her identity secret. But someone is watching her closely.

What really happened the night the three girls disappeared?

Small towns have deep, dark secrets. Someone is willing to kill to keep those secrets hidden. The closer she gets to finding answers, the more danger she's in.

As the author held the position of a cold case homicide detective for many years, I expected a certain amount of credibility ... I was not disappointed. It's a tightly woven with twists and turns, lots of page-turning action. The characters are skillfully drawn. Residents of this small town are just normal nice people, but someone isn't who they pretend to be. Suspects are varied ..and all lead to a very unexpected ending.

Many thanks to the author / Crooked Lane Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

First book I’ve read by Lissa Redmond and I’m sorry I missed her previous books on Netgalley! This book was great with a very unexpected ending. It’s a definite page turner,

This one was just okay for me.

This definitely falls a little more in the crime fiction genre as opposed to straight up thriller. I understand the author has previously worked as a police detective, and yet despite that some of the police procedural aspects of the story didn't seem super realistic.

I enjoyed the portrayal of how young female police officers can be taken advantage in the male dominated field of police work.

I did find the ending a little predictable. I do think some people would be surprised by the twist in the ending though which is good.

The ending for me was a little to nicey nicey, happy happy but overall it was an enjoyable story.

The Secrets They Left Behind is a standalone (?) procedural thriller mystery by Lissa Marie Redmond. Released 7th April 2020 by Crooked Lane Books, it's 304 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.

This is a well written FBI procedural with a young female protagonist on loan for fieldwork from the Buffalo PD. She has a history with the FBI and the supervisor with whom she's working which is revealed through a series of flashbacks throughout the novel. Her particular appeal for this case (and the prior assignment she completed for the FBI) is that she looks much younger than she actually is.

The story itself is interesting and set up well: the disappearance of three freshman women at a local small-town community college has her placed in the field undercover as a freshman in the same social circle as the missing girls. The plotting and story arc seemed oddly paced to me and moved forward somewhat unevenly however. The author devoted a fair amount of wordage to the interactions of Shea (undercover cop) and her freshman girlfriend group; exchanging clothes, doing one another's hair and makeup, talking about boys, and slagging off girls they don't like.

The book will likely find a willing audience in the new adult market and the strong romance subplot will probably be a bonus for those readers. I will say that the denouement and big reveal were strongly foreshadowed throughout the book and not much of a surprise. I also found my suspension of disbelief hiding behind the sofa over the deux ex machina methods that the author utilized to get Shea out of her predicaments.

The writing is capable. I recommend it to fans of procedurals who enjoy a large dose of romance with their mysteries. Three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.