Dirty Little Secrets

A J.J. Graves Mystery, Book 1

By: Liliana Hart

Narrated by: Laura Faye Smith

Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

J.J. Graves has seen a lot of dead bodies in her line of work... She's not only in the mortuary business, but she's also the coroner for King George County, Virginia. When a grisly murder is discovered in the small town of Bloody Mary, it's up to J.J. and her best friend, Detective Jack Lawson, to bring the victim justice. The murders are piling up... The residents of Bloody Mary are dropping like flies, and when a popular mystery writer shows up on J.J.'s doorstep with plans of writing his new book about the Bloody Mary Serial Killer, J.J. suspects the writer might be going above and beyond the call of duty to create the spine-tinglers he's so well known for.

It only clouds the issue and puts her reputation on the line when the attraction between them spirals out of control. And passions are rising... J.J. and Jack are in a race against time. They discover each victim had a shocking secret, and the very foundation of J.J.'s life is in danger of crumbling when it turns out she's harboring secrets of her own-secrets that make her the perfect victim in a deadly game.

©2011 Liliana Hart (P)2013 Liliana Hart

I liked the book not the ending

The story was great. Seemed to move at a good pace. The killer came out of no where in my opinion. And the ending was just to abrupt. Let too many things open.

This Has Murders, Suspense, Romance and some Humor

I am adding this to my favorite author list. This has murders, suspense, romance and humor and I listened to this as an audio book and was rushing to get things done so I could go back to listening to the book.
J.J. Graves is a mortician in a mortuary business and also the coroner for King George County, Virginia. A grisly murder is discovered in the small town of Bloody Mary and J.J. works with her best friend, Detective Jack Lawson on the case. There are more murders almost each day and in the middle of this, J.J. meets Brody Collins a popular mystery writer with plans of writing his new book about the Bloody Mary Serial Kill. J.J. has to decide if he might be going above and beyond the call of duty to create the spine tinglers he is known for. There is attraction between J.J. and Brody and goes out of control.
J.J and Jack are in a race against time. They discover each victim had a shocking secret, and the very foundation of J.J.'s life is in danger of crumbling when it turns out she's harboring secrets of her own that make her the perfect victim.

Promising mystery, but lousy romance

What would have made Dirty Little Secrets better?

More mystery, less sex and constant talk of sex. I found this book in the modern detective section of mysteries. I had no idea that it would be half mystery half really bad Harlequin Romance.The main character is a coroner investigating several murders, yet 75% of her thoughts and conversation revolves around sex, how long it's been since she's had sex, and hen she will have sex again. It was boring pretty quickly.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The murderer was a surprise. The why was a bit contrived, but it was pretty well thought out.

Have you listened to any of Laura Faye Smith’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No this was my first book narrated by Ms. Smith. She was good and had very good control of her characters.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Dirty Little Secrets?

Everything involving the mystery writer, Brody. I liked him and he could have added to the story as an outsider and possible suspect. But Brody was only treated as a warm body for the main character to objectify.

Any additional comments?

The main character is supposed to be a 30year old doctor, but her internal monologue and actions are more in line with an 18 year old. In one scene she moans about how she has to be cheap in buying groceries and worries about 30 dollars sending her over her credit limit.

In the next scene she buys a cashmere dress, accessories, and underwear from a high end store for her date with Brody. She doesn't' t look at price tags and then notches lunch from Jack because her life is depressing and she's so poor.

A rating....

My Review:
Overall.... 4.50
Performance... 4.50
Story.... 4.50

Wow...what a great start to this series. This book was incredible. I started out listening to it on audio and then couldn't stand the time to wait to listen to the last 20% of the book and switched to the Kindle version...love that whispersync option!

This is the first book in the J.J. Graves mystery series. J.J. is a doctor who had to come home to run her parent's funeral home after they suddenly died in a car crash. Because of budget cuts, she's also the county's coroner which often puts her working with her best friend, Jack, who's the sheriff. Bloody Mary is a small town mysterious deaths aren't a common occurrence...until this book begins.

I love J.J. and how real she feels. She's unhappy with her situation, but is stuck. ..she even fantasizes about completely disappearing from her life, but her friendship with Jack is the one thing keeping her anchored. Their relationship was awesome. I love how they truly are best friends. He knows it's been 4 years since she had sex. She knows about every one of his many, many sexual exploits. They are close....so close...and that friendship and camaraderie made this book such a good read. I especially loved how jealous he got of Brody...hmm, interesting, wasn't it?

I'll admit, this book kept me guessing until the very end. I knew it could go one of two ways and it went one of them which is so heartbreaking for J.J. It will be interesting to see how the twists and turns at the end of the book play out for the series. Lots of things that were hinted at that are still unresolved that I can see will play out probably over several books here. I can't wait to find out and immediately went and downloaded both audio and kindle versions of book #2 as soon as I finished this one. I can't wait to start it today!

I just found a great new series!

I really got into this, and it was the first time I listened to this kind of murder mystery with romance - I'm hooked! I thought the narrator was awesome and I would hope she would do all of Liliana Hart's books! Both author and speaker were fabulous. I can't wait to read and listen to more of Liliana Hart's books!!

Nice easy listen

Finally, a writer that understands more isn't equal to better. This book had more romance than the usual mystery/thriller but that's understandable given the author's body of works. The main character reminds me of my daughter. I liked her a lot. The story wasn't predictable and that's always a plus. I plan to continue listening to the rest of the series.

Great Read

Total surprise of who done it. Performance excellent by reader. Great voice changes kept story interesting. People keep getting murdered, every suspect has an alibi or is murdered. A story of crime & passion.

Good story

I never expected the ending! Good story and since it's the first in a series, I'm going to read the rest of the series!

Encore, encore

Murder, mystery,plot twists, a bit of spice and sassy romance mixed in. Nice intro to the series that leaves the reader wanting more. Just glad my small little home town has kept its dirty little secrets a little better than Bloody Mary and has kept the resulting death count lower. Already on to the next.

Great in audio

I have the whole series and it is very good, but in audio is much better. I'm getting the other books in audio.