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Every Secret Thing  By  cover art

Every Secret Thing

By: Laura Lippman
Narrated by: Celeste Ciulla
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Publisher's summary

One of mystery writing's most acclaimed novelists for her brilliant Tess Monaghan series, Laura Lippman won the Anthony and Barry Awards for this riveting stand-alone.

Kicked out of a birthday party, 11-year-olds Alice and Ronnie walk home and encounter a baby left in a carriage. Their earnest desire to do a good deed ends tragically, however, and seven years later they are released from "kid prison" to start their lives anew.

©2003 Laura Lippmann (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Lippman has won just about every mystery writing award there is - the Edgar, the Agatha, the Anthony, the Shamus, and the Nero Wolfe - for her Tess Monaghan series. This is her first stand-alone mystery, one in which the detectives are consigned to bit parts....Lippman doesn't write a standard whodunit here but plays with reader expectations of what should happen next. A startling page-turner." ( Booklist)

What listeners say about Every Secret Thing

Average customer ratings
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Couldn't Make It

I love what I've read of Laura Lippman but just couldn't get into this one. As a matter of fact I'm pretty underwhelmed by the one Tess Monahan book I've downloaded as well. Sad to think Lippman is not consistent because all her books are intriguing to me but I've steered away from any of her titles since failing to make it through this one.

My biggest complaint is that the beginning is fairly difficult to follow and with audiobook that is bad news for these ears. I felt like that with the other Lippman books that I've finished but for some reason those titles hooked me before it was too late...this one did not and I moved on.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

I just don't get it.

Ok, the first problem was that I thought this was in the Tess Monaghan series. It isn't. I even went to Amazon and read the reviews, which were favorable talking about the great character development. Well, I'll agree that the characters are well developed, but I didn't LIKE any of them. The story is told from at least six points of view and I had a hard time through the first half trying to remember who this person was that was now the central character. I suppose that I could most like the detective, but she's fairly bland, insecure and a little whiney. Yeah, she has things to be insecure about, but there isn't a lot more to her. Then there's the manipulative black (and that's why everybody's against me) mother with the rich powerful father. The two girls, Ronnie and Alice, anything I say about them would constitute spoiler. Alice's public defender is another viewpoint. She seems weak and unprofessional. Alice's mother, who struck me as self-centered. A nasty newspaper reporter and her superiors. I finished it because I wanted to understand what happend, but I could have done without the middle six hours. Everything is wrapped up, explained and you understand why a couple of characters acted as they did only in the last 20 minutes or so.

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5 people found this helpful

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This Was Torture Listening

This was the slowest Laura Lippman book I've listened to yet. It was torture getting to the end. There was so much non-essential talking and took forever to get to one point. I like Lippman and will still listen to her, but this one is not on my list of favorites.

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Horrible narration

Any additional comments?

It sounds like a Kindergarten teacher reading to her students. The themes, dialogue, and content just sounded wrong in such a whimsical voice. The story was pretty good. I imagine it would be a good book to read on a plane or at the beach. Terrible listen, however...

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

I was hooked on the story . . .

. . . from the very beginning, but the narrator was horrible. She has this sort of chipper voice that's not at all in keeping with the tenor of the story and the character delineation was so subtle that it was almost non-existent; with a more suitable narrator, this would have been a 5 star listen, in my opinion.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

good until the end

I really enjoyed listening to this book. It was compelling and kept me wondering until the end. It felt like the author ran out of steam though and the ending felt rushed and not as well developed or interesting as the first 90% of the book
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2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Didn't care for this one, usually love her books

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Did not like the characters or the ending

Would you ever listen to anything by Laura Lippman again?

Yes- I usually love her books, but not this one

What does Celeste Ciulla bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I didn't mind her narration

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Every Secret Thing?

?

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story - needs pronunciation help!

I love Laura Lippman. Her writing is wonderful and she paints a picture with every sentence. Loved this stand alone mystery and it kept me guessing. I felt the ending wrapped up a bit to quickly. I rarely write reviews but the pronunciation of various Baltimore places in this audiobook drove me bananas! If you’re going to read Lippman you at least need to pronounce Towson correctly! That said, the narrator was otherwise wonderful.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

So good! I liked the narrator

I worried about getting this 1 as the comments about the narrator were negative BUT I thought that that book was amazing, and the narrator was good and didn’t bother me at all. Well worth the credit

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

boring read

struggling to finish, boring reader
no twists, or exciting chapters
I returned it for another book

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