Linda is at a very vulnerable time in her life. After losing her husband she is facing even more challenges as her best friend is placed in a memory care facility due to her escalating Alzheimer’s as well as the adjustment of her adult daughter moving back home with her less than pleasant husband. While visiting her friend at the facility, Linda encounters Jenny Cooper who instantly drops a bombshell secret on her — that she is a killer. Is Jenny truly a murderer, or is the dementia causing her to admit to things that she didn’t actually do? Linda quickly becomes stuck in Jenny’s web working to untangle the truth from the lies and confusion but ultimately forms the an unlikely but wonderful friendship that will impact Linda’s family and life in more ways than we.

While I was hoping for more suspense and shocking revelations, I really enjoyed the friendships made and then comic relief Jenny Cooper’s shenanigans provided. I would’ve loved to dive more into her past and the murders. The story does get a bit repetitive at times, but overall I really enjoyed this one!

Linda Davidson is entering a new phase of her life—her beloved daughter and not-so-beloved son-in-law, who are having marital issues, have moved in with her after her husband’s death, and her best friend is in a memory care institution, having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Finding visiting her friend immensely sad and lonely, Linda connects with a quirky resident of Legacy Place, the ninety-two-year-old dementia patient, Jenny Cooper. And Jenny Cooper has a secret—she kills people.

At first, Linda thinks these are invented stories, products of a deteriorating mind, but then people start dying. Is Jenny telling the truth? I found this to be a wonderful story—about a woman finding her footing after life loss, and rediscovering herself, as well as her family and friendship. It really affected me, and I would recommend this.

While visiting her best friend in a dementia unit at an assistant living home, Linda meets Jenny. Jenny is a feisty woman to takes to Linda, and reveals her big secret- she kills people. Is this one of her dementia-riddled delusions? Or is Jenny telling the truth?

This book was cute, but some of the parts felt super redundant and the Kleo/Mick storyline was infuriating and predictable.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Jenny Cooper is 93 years old and suffering from dementia. Or maybe it's dementia or maybe it's been long enough, that there's no use keeping things a secret. Jenny lives in a memory care facility and confesses her murder spree to Linda, a visitor. Linda takes Jenny's confession lightly, after all, this is a memory care facility.

But then another patient dies, and Linda notices that the death is being called natural, but Jenny keeps talking.

Joy Fielding has written a fun, witty mystery with Jenny Cooper Has A Secret. Sometimes the kindest old people...are the most dangerous.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Joy Fielding, and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for the eARC. I absolutely loved this story—it was as wild as it gets! I’m always a fan of a good revenge story, and this one delivered with a twist that made it even more unforgettable. No spoilers here, but you’ll definitely want to read it to find out!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher & the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
I have read 3 other books by Joy Fielding & loved them :
"All the Wrong Places", "The Bad Daughter" & "The Housekeeper" so I was excited to review her latest book, "Jenny Cooper Has A Secret".
I wasn't disappointed, it was an addictive, compelling & unusual thriller.
I can't wait to read her next book.

Favorite author Joy Fielding has delivered another fantastic domestic suspense. Linda meets Jenny Cooper when visiting her friend at a nursing home. Jenny has dementia and Linda can’t tell if the secrets she tells her are real or fabricated. Meanwhile, Linda is struggling with her home situation. Everything comes to a head towards the end and Linda is forced to make some tough decisions. This is a humorous character-driven suspense. It is not graphic or deeply psychological. I liked both the humor and the fact that the protagonist is an older female. For fans of Nita Prose.

I really enjoyed Joy Fielding's See Jane Run, Someone is Watching, Cul-de-sac, and The Housekeeper and this is another good one. Linda Davidson is a lonely 76 year-old widow with two adult daughters. Her daughter Kleo and her husband Mick have moved into her house as Kleo completes her PhD dissertation and Mick tries to get his new business off the ground. Their constant fighting makes Linda very anxious and not comfortable in her own home. By contrast, her other daughter Vanessa has her life a lot more together - living in Connecticut with a successful career and a beautiful family. Linda's best friend Carol is now in a memory care facility with Alzheimers. She visits Carol regularly at Legacy Place, even though Carol often doesn't know who Linda is anymore. During these visits, Linda meets Jenny Cooper, an eccentric 92 year-old. Because her visits to Carol are so depressing and she doesn't want to deal with what's going on at home, Linda starts spending more and more time with Jenny, hearing many crazy stories and questioning how much could be true. Joy Fielding's writing is really good and her characters are beautifully developed. She tackles some tough topics with just enough humor to keep the book from getting too heavy. I look forward to her next book. Thanks to #Netgalley and #BallantineBooks for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

JENNY COOPER HAS A SECRET was a quick read with compulsively fast chapters. This was an interesting one because not much happened during the book until the final few chapters, but it was still an oddly compelling read despite that.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read and review JENNY COOPER HAS A SECRET.

Jenny Cooper has a Secret by Joy Fielding

I haven’t read a Joy Fielding novel in years. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Loved it. Dark humor is my jam! While the story had heavy issues such as dementia, abuse and family drama it did incorporate humor to lighten it and I really appreciated it. This is a thriller but it’s more on the softer side. It’s emotional. It explores relationships of the geriatric community. I really enjoyed that since I work at a skilled nursing facility and most of our residents are over 80. Not too many novels out there about the older community.

Linda Davidson is a 76 year old widow who visits her best friend l, Carol, often at the assisted living facility. Carol has dementia and Linda starts to feel lonely between losing her husband and now her best friend. She starts visiting another resident at the facility— 92 year old Jenny Cooper. Jenny is quite the character.

Jenny claims to have murdered people but Linda isn’t sure if she’s being truthful or if it’s dementia. Jenny Cooper was a breath of fresh air. She was fun. Unreliable. She was hilarious.

If you are looking for a fast paced not so serious thriller I totally recommend Jenny Cooper has a Secret!

4 stars!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Netgalley Joy Fielding and Ballantine Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Netgalley for this ARC! While Linda Davidson's best friend is admitted to an assisted living facility due to her dementia she befriends another resident Jenny Cooper who has a secret. Can Linda believe anything Jenny says? While Linda's life seems to be swirling around her she finds herself looking forward to seeing Jenny and learn more about her life and secrets. This is a very enjoyable book that makes you laugh and cry as we see Linda trying to keep her life together and she may have secrets of her own!

JENNY COOPER HAS A SECRET
BY: JOY FIELDING

I have always loved JOY FIELDING'S, Psychological thrillers, and this one called, "JENNY COOPER HAS A SECRET," was not only fast paced, but the tiny chapters also seem to help me read faster, which this was a one sitting reading experience. I flew right through this one, which I didn't have to think to hard, at all. The most interesting thing about this was that Linda Davidson, who was seventy six years old, and in great health whose lost her husband Bob, two years ago, seems to be losing everybody around her that she loves. She's a retired school teacher who has her daughter Kleo and Kleo's husband Mick, moving in with her in her home in Florida. Kleo is working on her dissertation, and her husband Mick, recently left his job to start a new business, which is floundering. He took over Linda's home office, and both her daughter and son in law aren't working so under the guise of moving in to keep Linda company since she's paying for everything, it's one more thing for Linda to worry about since her daughter and her daughter's husband bicker all of the time.

Linda tries to keep busy, and to get out of the house she spends most of her time visiting, her oldest, dearest best friend, Carol at a Memory Care Facility called, "Legacy Place," visiting her childhood friend Carol. Carol, is not cognizant that Linda is there since she has Late stage Alzheimer's disease with dementia. As the novel opens on her first day there she meets this spry ninety two year old woman named Jenny Cooper. Jenny is hard to believe since she's sort of a paranoid, old woman who approaches Linda, and tells her that she has a secret. She tells Linda that she kills people. Jenny used to be a Pharmacist and she tells Linda how when she was playing hide and seek as a young child with her brother, she was hiding underneath the kitchen sink and she witnesses her father who she said was a mean drunk strangle her mother.

Linda, starts going to visit that Memory Care Facility more often trying to hear more from Jenny, who tells her how he got rid of her mother's body, and took her and her two brothers out to eat at McDonald's to eat. Then another day Linda visits and she finds out an older man aspirated and died, so Linda is suspicious and wonders if Jenny had anything to do with this older man's death. Jenny is always up and around every time Linda visits, which seems to be everyday. Jenny always asks Linda if she works for the CIA, FBI or police. which Linda assures her she doesn't. However, Linda coaxes Jenny to tell her more about her father, and Jenny admits to murdering him. With poison. Linda is very interested in coaxing out more details from Jenny, who was married for eleven years until she killed her husband, and his mother who Linda keeps spending more time there asking about Jenny who has now admitted to killing three people which makes her a Serial Killer, with three murders.

The book goes onto another thread when Linda runs into Lorne, who is Carol's eighty year old husband who asks Linda to see a movie and go out to dinner with him as friends, which Linda hesitates and agrees. He starts talking about how Carol, was sitting in another male resident's room on his bed, with her shirt unbuttoned. Lorne tells Linda how he tried to bring Carol back to her room, and she obviously does not remember, that he's her husband, and reacted violently, and punched him in the face, giving him a black eye. One of the things that I did learn about Alzheimer's Disease is when diagnosed, afterwards the mental capacity of the brain loses memory declining, which we all know, but when total memory is gone, the person afflicted can have a complete personality change, with often becoming aggressive. As with Lorne explained to Linda, which I know about the aggression, but I don't know if what he told Linda is true. He told Linda that a sweet and loving temperament of the person who has those qualities can turn into the complete opposite personality which can be mean and bad tempered, and vice versa. I did a little research on the condition since my husband gave me quite the scare when he told me he was having memory loss of recent events. When I heard that I told him he needed to get to the ER, and have an MRI immediately since when I asked him how long had it been going on he said about ten months. Of course, I was extremely upset since as 54 years old he seemed like he was too young to be Alzheimer's disease.

My husband wasn't in a rush to get evaluated, and it took me a weekend to convince him to go ASAP, since my mind, went to the worse case scenario. I noticed his recall of recent events was totally not accurate. I told him that I couldn't stand by and watch him deteriorate since my mind thought he must either have a brain tumor, or Early Onset Alzheimer's which after the MRI it took about a month to get an appointment with a Neurologist. I was semi-relieved, since we didn't get the results of the MRI, I assumed that it can't be a tumor, otherwise we would have had immediate sooner medical care. But of course, at age 54 I didn't tell him that I thought it was Early Onset Alzheimer's which was heartbreaking since he forgot so much of what occurred just two weeks ago. I kept telling him that I was very, very worried about him, since I saw such rapid memory loss, and he told me every time I told him that I was a nervous wreck, he'd say to me in a gentle manner, "only positive thoughts, please."

I read up on the Early Onset Alzheimer's and I kept thinking that it fit with his symptoms it had to be that. That's part of the reason, I wanted to read this novel. I do love this Author's many previous novels which were all creepy, but page turners just like this was. I did learn after reading this, which was excellent that I have evolved into a Literary Fiction fan as being my absolute favorite genre because of the depth often made me emotionally connected to deeply slower paced character driven writing. Now I have about thirty more novels like this, while extremely entertaining, and ones that I might pick up once in a while to take my mind off of being so heavily affected by Literary fiction. There are two that depressed me so much, that these type of lighter reads would help me to recover faster since the two I read that were so real and heartbreaking earlier this year which I highly recommend. The reason being that they disturbed me by the content for they couldn't be more realistic, but heartbreaking since I needed a night's sleep to get my feelings back to normal, but profoundly powerful that you must read. "The River Is Waiting," by Wally Lamb, and "Fox," by Joyce Carol Oates. There are many more that are excellent that aren't getting much hype, but not as disturbing for lovers of Literary fiction which I will give you one more that was masterfully written, only because this one is powerful, but suburb called, "Greenwich," by Kate Broad. Put those three on your to be read list, better yet, read them next. Remember that the one by Wally Lamb, is going to be loved by all readers since it's fast paced like this one, and I feel that Wally Lamb, already has a higher following so I feel blasphemous for recommending him in this review. I have read all of his novels, and he really got under my skin, and I mentioned his latest novel for two reasons. First, because fans of this author, Joy Fielding are going to love that, and this was another highly imaginative creepier read. Second, because I think it's his best novel, and just like this Author, I will continue to read her work since I think she's one of the more talented in the genre for Psychological thrillers. JOY FIELDING'S writing always gets more eerie the deeper you get into her novels, but it is much easier reading, almost lighter than any of the three I mentioned above. I do need this type of novel, which it might be since this one seemed to be in this what I loved the most was the older characters being seventy six, for Linda Davidson, and the ninety two year old wily, but blunt, lucid but horror inducing, Jenny Cooper. I loved the juxtaposition of the rational, morally, but her growing fascination into being so questionable, as well, Linda Davidson's growing intrigue about Jenny Cooper, the serial killer's victims. Why was Linda so interested as she is increasing her time around Jenny Cooper's presence if she's such a straight laced, by the book rule follower? Ask yourself that question. Which makes you wonder if Linda is the "nice, good girl," persona, or is she an unreliable narrator?

Publication Date: August 5, 2025! AVAILABLE NOW TO PURCHASE! A FAST PACED THRILLER THAT THIS AUTHOR, JOY FIELDING'S TALENT IS IN HER NEWEST PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER NOT BEING THE TYPICAL!

Thank you to Net Galley, Joy Fielding, Random House Publishing Group--Ballantine/Ballantine Books for generously providing me with my Terrific ARC, in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own, as always.

#JennyCooperHasaSecret #JoyFielding #RandomHousePublishingGroupBallantine #BallantineBooks #NetGalley

Linda Davidson is letting her daughter Kleo and son-in-law Mick move into her apartment. She goes to visit her friend at Legacy Place, a memory care facility for the elderly, where she meets Jenny Cooper, a ninety-two-year-old dementia patient who makes a shocking confession: she kills people. She doesn't believe her until a patient at Legacy Place dies. Everyone else sees it as the natural death of an sick old man, but Linda can’t help but wonder: is there any chance Jenny’s telling the truth ? I enjoyed the banter of Linda and Jenny, there was some funny moments . This book was fast paced , has some twist and turns , and a little sad.

There were many laughs in this psychological thriller, which is pretty unusual. Linda's husband has died and her best friend, Carol, has dementia and has moved into a care facility. When Linda visits her friend at Legacy Place, she meets Jenny Cooper, a 92-year old dementia patient who confides to Linda that she has killed people. While shocked, Linda is also intrigued. As they develop a friendship (their conversations are humorous), Linda tells Jenny about her daughter Kleo and son-in-law, Mick, and their troubles. Jenny continues to tell Linda about her supposed crimes and when Jenny provides Linda with a gift, Linda doesn't hesitate to use it.
I enjoyed this psychological thriller with a nod to the pain of dementia, but with some humor to it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. I always love Joy’s books and this one was no different. Fabulous, fun and quirky. Loved it.

I really enjoyed this book. It was quirky and very different from my usual books. I was totally absorbed in the characters and plot. As a senior citizen myself, I was quite understanding of the fears and hazards of growing old.

Linda is a widow, who visits her best friend Carol, in a memory care facility. While there,she meets Jenny Cooper, a 93 year old patient, who tells Linda a secret. Jenny has dementia, but Linda finds her fascinating, and they become good friends. Jenny repeats over and over again that she has killed people!

Linda struggles to find happiness in her life, and she grows more and more invested in Jenny’s tales.

At the same time, Linda is subjected to the abusive son-in-law,living in her house with her daughter. As a mother, she struggles with unhappy life her daughter is living. She shares her sorrow with Jenny.

I found this story to be both entertaining and sad at the same time. The friendship of these two women is very endearing, albeit heartbreaking by the devastation of dementia.



Thank you to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine books for the advanced copy.
My review is unbiased and honest.

Linda Davidson is a good mother, wife and friend. She spends her days letting her daughter and son in law live in her house, while visiting her oldest and dearest friend with dementia at Legacy Place, a memory care facility. When she runs in to Jenny Cooper during one of those visits, who immediately confesses her secret to Linda, Linda cannot help but become invested in Jenny. And while her friend Carol pulls further away from her, Jenny Cooper pulls Linda in. In a light hearted way, the author reveals Jenny Coopers secrets and waits till the very end to reveal what Linda does with this information.

Jenny Cooper is quite the character and I was would have probably been drawn to visit her in the nursing home, if I met her. She is elusive and gives just enough information to keep you wanting more. Linda Davidson, an aging widow with a dire home situation, clings on to the mystery-shrouded Jenny as an escape from her own turmoil. But is she jumping from the frying pan into the fire? This is the question that kept me reading, more than a lot of action in the plot. Joy Fielding is really good at creating suspense by using suppositions and suggestion. Enjoyable psychological thriller.

I was laughing out loud at times. Short chapters and Jenny is a great character. Predictable but very enjoyable. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

This book was entertaining, engaging and moved along quickly. I enjoyed the characters and found it humorous yet suspenseful. Really enjoyed it!