The Dog Walker

Secrets (A Dog Walker Novel)

By: D.L. Maddox

Narrated by: Linda Jones

Author’s Note: The Dog Walker novels can be listened to in any order. Each story stands alone with new secrets, new dangers, and the same unforgettable heroine. This is a perfect place to start.

At the Loomis Estate, every secret has its price.

Jane Ashcroft is starting over in Old Saybrook, Connecticut—new town, new job, same rules: stay quiet, stay useful, stay unnoticed. Her newest client, the Loomis family, resides in a vast estate along the coast, and nothing about them feels ordinary.

The matriarch is elegant and exacting. The staff, formal and watchful. And then there’s Graham—the disarming grandson with a sailor’s charm and a past Jane can’t quite decode. She knows better than to get involved. But the pull is real.

She tells herself it’s just a job. She’s just the dog walker.

But the longer she stays, the more twisted the whispers become. There’s an uncle no one talks about. Rumors that won’t stay buried. And eyes—always watching, even when she’s alone.

Until Jane isn’t sure whether she’s the outsider… or the target.

The Dog Walker: Secrets is a chilling psychological thriller about seduction, privilege, and the dangers of getting too close to a powerful family with too much to hide.

©2025 TIER Books LLC (P)2025 TIER Books LLC

Wealthy But Twisted

The Dog Walker is a book of characters where pulpy twisted things happen not because they make sense or follow a plot but because the characters are broken. It's got some wild sensational turns that are fun but cheesy. The 'secret lives of rich folk' tone is a rich one I enjoyed; a subtle sort of bourgeois folk horror. I listened to this before the prequel and there are some references to the prequel but nothing too obviously dictating reading order (having since started the prequel I think it might be a little better to read that one first since it just starts cold with no references to other installments; both seem quite similar). I appreciated the 'coastal elite' vine here and some low key spy elements most. A turn at the end felt a little disappointing (somewhat random feeling despite being foreshadowed).

Empty story with predictable ending

Listener be warned. I forced myself to listen through the end. This entire story is just devoid if so much. I can't be bothered to take up any additional time.