About the Book – All Her Little Secrets
In this fast-paced thriller, Wanda M. Morris crafts a twisty mystery about a black lawyer who gets in over her head after the sudden death of her boss. A debut perfect for fans of Attica Locke, Alyssa Cole, Harlan Coben, and Celeste Ng, with shades of How to Get Away with Murder and John Grisham’s The Firm.
Everyone has something to hide…
Ellice Littlejohn seemingly has it all: an Ivy League law degree, a well-paying job as a corporate attorney in midtown Atlanta, great friends, and a “for fun” relationship with a rich, charming executive—her white boss, Michael.
But everything changes one cold January morning when Ellice goes to meet Michael… and finds him dead with a gunshot to his head.
And then she walks away like nothing has happened. Why? Ellice has been keeping a cache of dark secrets, including a small-town past and a kid brother who’s spent time on the other side of the law. She can’t be thrust into the spotlight—again.
But instead of grieving this tragedy, people are gossiping, the police are getting suspicious, and Ellice, the company’s lone black attorney, is promoted to replace Michael. While the opportunity is a dream-come-true, Ellice just can’t shake the feeling that something is off.
When she uncovers shady dealings inside the company, Ellice is trapped in an impossible ethical and moral dilemma. Suddenly, Ellice’s past and present lives collide as she launches into a pulse-pounding race to protect the brother she tried to save years ago and stop a conspiracy far more sinister than she could have ever imagined…
“You fightin’ for ya life. Like I always told you, you use your heart to love but you use your head to fight.”
quote from All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris
Our Review of All Her Little Secrets
The third book of 2022 and the bad spree continues. Well, to be fair, the book wasn’t that bad, it’s just that it didn’t reach its full potential. The book in my opinion had so much to say, that it kind of forgot where to start and where to end and how much to say. Things came up in between and stayed there for a while and then went to another thing so it kept dwindling with priorities. It has a lot of elements but I felt that it kind of missed that seamless mixing of all these elements
All her secrets are more like corporate politics. The wars played in boardrooms. The murder angle felt forcefully inserted and to create hype. Of course one of the actual worthwhile version of the book is the background or origin story of the character. So basically the book has three parts. The origin story and secrets of our central character aka the Past. Then there is the current scenario, where she is living a life as a completely different person. Then comes the third part, the murder of a colleague. Underlying all these three parts of the story is the broader topic of racial discrimination and the day to day struggle of an independent black woman in a white Men’s world.
So individually all of these elements shine well except the murder mystery because that definitely amidst all these elements came as an afterthought but still, the character’s past, her struggles as a black woman in a white world was so powerful and well etched out. The only trouble is that all of these didn’t gel well with the rest. Although the book tries to do that towards the end of the book.
The Book is more into the corporate games and that is why I found most of it as a static noise only broken in between with something worthwhile mention about the character’s past. Mostly its all boardroom and corporate talks and litigation stuff while the actual murder mystery is waiting to be taken notice
Conclusion
The book is good in bits and parts. The backstory of the character is an absolute must-read in the book and the one that actually works and plays well in the book. The rest of the book is just talks and corporate politics against the backdrop of racial indiscrimination which fails to mix well into the core theme of the book- the murder mystery. Everything else is going on up and down but nothing towards the real mystery and then all of a sudden in the last chapter everything is solved and revealed without a smooth progression to the cause. But underneath all of this is a powerful story that lost focus with so many elements distracting it.
Squirrel Rating
