by K.L. Slater

Audiobook Link: The Secret

Overview

Another psychological thriller by K.L Slater that took large turns that I never could have expected. Usually it takes a few chapters for me to get into a book but not this one. I was drawn in by the first sentence in the prologue. “My favourite place isn’t real, and that’s why it’s called a virtual world.” K.L Slater has done it again! Hooked me right from the start.

As usual I was impressed with the audiobook performance, but compared to other K.L. Slater books, I felt the story in this one was less interesting than others despite instantly being hooked in at the start.

It really started off well, building up to the climax, but the climax was not what I expected, and the story was over very quickly after.

I paid £1.99 for the kindle edition, and £2.99 for the audiobook.

Story

As with other books written by K.L Slater, this one is set in Nottinghamshire. The female main character Alice lives alone in a flat and has minimal contact with the world. Because she is home all the time, her sister Louise enlists her to watch her son Archie.

I completely related to the character mentioned in the prologue. With only this short description of what she thought, I felt like I knew her and the type of person she was. This might be because I love virtual worlds and video-games to escape the real world. I spent most of my childhood and adolescence on the internet making friends all over the world and many of which have become lifelong friends. I will tell you though, the theme of this book is not about video-games or virtual worlds, so if that isn’t your cup of tea, don’t worry.

Alice, a vegetarian, lives in a third floor apartment she had shared with her mother prior to her mother’s death. Her father also had died some time earlier. She has a cat named Magnus who detests her nephew Archie, a self conscious, childish eight year old, who is her sister Louise’s son. She occasionally watches Archie for Louise, despite her sisters sharp tongue, because Louise is a business executive and has to work additional hours more often after getting a promotion . Archie’s step father is a pharmaceutical sales representative of some sort and is often away for work until Archie has already gone to bed.

Early on, the reader is left wondering what is going to be the issue in this thriller; Will it be Alice, Archie, Louise, Archie’s step father? one of Louise’s neighbors? There are so many directions that the story could go and as usual, K. L. Slater through me for a loop. I was so sure I had finally figured it out, only to be proven yet again that I was wrong.

Audiobook

As with many other K.L. Slater books, this one was narrated by Lucy Price-Lewis. After listening to multiple books by K.L. Slater, narrated by the same narrator, I sort of felt myself getting confused between the stories. I absolutely love the narrators performance and think she does a good job within each book creating new voices for each character, but with many of K.L. Slater’s books having the same setup, a female lead, etc, sometimes the main character in one book sounds like a character from a previous book that I had listened to. The audio book was 7 hours and 43 minutes so it lasted a good while. I didn’t even realise I was near the end, until I heard the climax and was shocked with the turn the story took.

Recommended For

I would recommend this for any fans of K.L Slater, or audiobook listener fans of Lucy Price-Lewis. I don’t think I would go so far to as to say that I recommend this to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers as it is most likely persons who have read a lot of psychological thrillers would be expecting more than this book was able to deliver. But, if you are looking for a cheap book to pass some time away, and are perhaps new to psychological thrillers, it will take you on a small ride.