Book Review: All Her Little Secrets | Wanda M. Morris

Have you ever reinvented yourself? I suspect more of us have than you realize, even if only slightly. Maybe you grew up feeling not good enough—not rich enough, not cool enough, not slim enough… All of us have felt too much of something or not enough of another. Were interested in the wrong thing and never really found our place in the social sphere we were raised in.

But imagine the people who aren’t just reinventing themselves in these incremental ways. Not just becoming more socially integrated, not just leaving behind something easily changeable. Imagine the people who are shedding their whole past. The people who had a past too horrible to share with the people in their new lives. The people that no matter how kind, they fear would never understand and would never look at them the same once they knew.

Imagine on top of all of those things, that your gender and your race mean that pressure to be perfect is even greater. Enter Wanda M. Morris’s debut thriller, All Her Little Secrets—in which a woman who thought she’d left her past behind finds it catching up with her as the life she worked so hard for crumbles in the blink of an eye. Unputdownable!

About the Book

In this fast-paced thriller, Wanda M. Morris crafts a twisty mystery about a black lawyer who gets in over her head after the sudden death of her boss. A debut perfect for fans of Attica Locke, Alyssa Cole, Harlan Coben, and Celeste Ng, with shades of How to Get Away with Murder and John Grisham’s The Firm.

Everyone has something to hide…

Ellice Littlejohn seemingly has it all: an Ivy League law degree, a well-paying job as a corporate attorney in midtown Atlanta, great friends, and a “for fun” relationship with a rich, charming executive—her white boss, Michael.

But everything changes one cold January morning when Ellice goes to meet Michael… and finds him dead with a gunshot to his head.

And then she walks away like nothing has happened. Why? Ellice has been keeping a cache of dark secrets, including a small-town past and a kid brother who’s spent time on the other side of the law. She can’t be thrust into the spotlight—again.

But instead of grieving this tragedy, people are gossiping, the police are getting suspicious, and Ellice, the company’s lone black attorney, is promoted to replace Michael. While the opportunity is a dream-come-true, Ellice just can’t shake the feeling that something is off.

When she uncovers shady dealings inside the company, Ellice is trapped in an impossible ethical and moral dilemma. Suddenly, Ellice’s past and present lives collide as she launches into a pulse-pounding race to protect the brother she tried to save years ago and stop a conspiracy far more sinister than she could have ever imagined…

Reflection

When you first meet Ellice Littlejohn, here’s what you know about her: 1. She’s an incredibly successful, Ivy-league educated attorney. 2. She’s impeccably put together, always in well-tailored designer clothing. 3. She has a small group of close friends who are supportive and there for her when she needs them. 4. She has been having an affair with her married, white boss, Michael who she has just found dead in his office when she arrives for an early morning meeting.

With composure that only someone who has been through worse can muster, Ellice collects herself and leaves the office, pretending she was never there. When I tell you this was a shocker of an opening chapter, I am not kidding. Even though I knew what would happen from reading the book trailer, I was shocked seeing it play out!

Instantly I knew Ellice was not an average character in any way. She is this woman with a perfect exterior, but behind it she is a mix of flawed, damaged, resilient, strong, and relatable. I really loved Ellice and she is one of those characters I didn’t want to leave behind when the book ended.

The story unfolds in both the past and the present and I want to be cautious not to give away more than the teaser did here so I won’t say too much. But Ellice has a past. And I don’t just mean a nerd-in-high-school past (not that I’m undermining those who go through that)—Ellice has a deep, dark, leave-it-all-behind and never tell anyone where you are from kind of past. She didn’t just grow up poor, she grew up barely able to survive kind of poor. The kind of poor where people take advantage of your family. The kind of poor where no one comes to your aid when you need help. The kind of poor, black life that the rich, white good-ole-boys at work would judge her for.

I really enjoyed the past chapters and learning about the people who shaped Ellice, in good ways and in bad ones. Ellice’s past seems separate from what is happening in the present, but ultimately this is a book about how you never truly leave your past behind.

In present day, Ellice quickly finds herself promoted into her dead boss-slash-ex-boyfriend’s role at her very white company. And while this is the job of her dreams, nothing about this feels ok. Ellice knows that many think she only got this because of the race pressure on the very-white Houghton corporation. She knows that her education and performance only had so much to do with this promotion—she’s the token black board member. And when she quickly learns how the other woman on the board has been able to be successful in her role, Ellice feels even more desolate.

On top of all of this, someone knows about Ellice’s secrets and is threatening to expose them. As Ellice struggles to keep her past hidden, perform her new role, and dig into what really happened to Michael, she soon learns that everything she thought made her life so secure can unravel with the pull of a single thread.

This book is not only an expertly crafted thriller at the top of the genre, it also is an unapologetically black story about a black woman in a white corporate world facing racism, sexism, and corruption at the highest of levels. This book delivers for those who are only looking for a thriller, but you’ll be hard pressed to read it and not learn more empathy for black women in the corporate world. One of the best books I read in the past year—this should be on every thriller-reader’s list.