With my new title, SECRETS OF THE DEAD recently released, I have secrets on the mind. Oh, not the deep dark ones at the center of my plot, but the fun kind. Secrets. As intriguing as they can be, I know for a fact how difficult it can be sometimes to keep them.
When my third son was three, I had him with me when I set off to go shopping. Wouldn’t you know it, I got stopped for speeding. Got a ticket, too, darn it. I looked at my son, and said, “And Daddy never has to know about that.” He nodded emphatically, and replied, “Dat’s right. Don’t tell Daddy.” And he never did, either. It might have been the M&M’s I plied him with later, but the kid was a vault. I figured I was home free since I got picked up in another county. But wouldn’t you know, one of my hubby’s friends saw it in the paper there and blabbed it to my husband. Sheesh. And they claim women are the gossips!
My husband is a difficult man to keep a secret from in any case. Recently I was planning a surprise birthday party for him. He’s incurably nosy and I was absolutely exhausted trying to keep the details under wraps. First I caught him with my phone looking at my text messages. I had recently exchanged some texts with a friend I’d invited and I dove across the room to wrest my phone from him before he saw anything concerning him. Then I found him in the office rummaging in my desk, and lying on top of the desk was the contract with the DJ. That required some major distractions while I discreetly shoved the paper out of sight. And there was the one potential slip-up before I remembered to set my Facebook Invite page to private. But all seemed well. For once he didn’t seem to suspect a thing. That is, until an inebriated acquaintance (who shouldn’t even have known about the party) spilled the details to him over the Fourth of July festivities. Another secret doomed.
And then there was my new jewelry. Not that I thought I’d keep the purchase from him. The man has an eye for jewelry—I’ve trained him well. But this set of ring, necklace, earrings had my name on it, and sometimes I just care too much about his nerves to feel the need to share bothersome details with him. Like…cost 🙂 I had it all figured out. But I hadn’t counted on being out of town and him taking a call from the store informing us that my ring was in. Being the helpful guy that he is, he went over to pick it up. Later he said, “That’s a really pretty ring. It ought to be…for that price.” Sigh. Maybe I’m just not cut out for subterfuge.
Fortunately Declan Gallagher and Eve Larrison, the hero and heroine of SECRETS OF THE DEAD are much more adept at it. When a young boy is kidnapped, Eve and Declan go under cover to infiltrate the group responsible. Eve never suspected when she agreed to the job that the most difficult part of the case would be pretending to be married to Declan. And neither of them realized just how quickly things would get deadly. Because the truth about the boy’s kidnapping centers around the secrets surrounding his birth. Everyone who knows those secrets are dead. And it isn’t long before Eve and Declan are targeted for the same fate.
SECRETS OF THE DEAD marks the return to my Mindhunters series, but like the rest of the books in the series it can be read as a stand-alone.
Do you have secrets you’ve tried—and perhaps failed—to keep to yourself? Please share. And if you’re more skilled than I am at keeping things secret, I could certainly use some tips!
Best,
Kylie
SECRETS OF THE DEAD can be purchased in eBook or trade paperback format
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