Book Review: One Little Secret | Cate Holahan

A locked room mystery with twists, turns, and unforgettable characters—Cate Holahan’s One Little Secret explores the way we often see those closest to us the least clearly.

Who are the main players?

Jenny Muray is a sports commentator on tv and her husband Louis is an emergency room physician. Rachel Klein is an attorney and her husband Ben Hansen is an acclaimed author. Susan Ahmadi has put her legal career on hold to home school their autistic son and help her husband Nadal with his new venture, Doc2Go. DS Gabriella “Gabby” Watkins is newly promoted when she’s pulled from the sexual assault case she has been working to investigate a murder.

What is One Little Secret about?

The glass beach house was supposed to be the getaway Susan needed. She’s put her legal career on hold to care for her autistic son, and it’s been difficult navigating everyone’s opinions on what causes his flair ups. She invites her new neighbors to accompany her and her husband Nadal to a week-long rental in the Hamptons.

The three couples are still getting to know one another, and some alcoholic beverages consumed on the first night of vacation loosens them up. But as they learn more about the other couples, they begin to see the cracks beneath the surface—marital tensions, career frustrations, and some things that hit even closer to home. They all have secrets, but when of the group says a bit too much, things cross a line they can’t uncross.

When the group wakes up in the morning, one of the women is found dead on their private beach. Detective Gabriella “Gabby” Watkins is called to the crime scene to investigate, leaving behind a sexual assault case she was working to help get to the bottom of what happened in the glass house. Everyone has secrets that could link them to the murder, but the biggest secret of all may be hiding in plain sight…

What did I think?

I always enjoy a locked room format to a mystery, and though this is one big glass house, it’s clear that someone is responsible. The question facing the reader is who is dead and why? I was thinking when I started this book what a bad idea it is to plan a vacation with people you don’t know that well. That’s a recipe for disaster, and in this case murder.

The story goes back and forth between the night before and the morning after and switches between multiple points of view. The changing times and perspectives kept the pace moving, and after I got the hang of who everyone was and how they were linked together, I was completely hooked. We are kept in suspense of who was the killer. Everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else. There were more motives than suspects, it seemed at times. I could have seen any one of them being responsible!

If I could describe this book in one word, I think I’d choose juicy. Drugs, alcohol, secrets, and naughty behavior—these are rich people who think they are above the law at times. No one in the main six people is particularly likable. But that doesn’t detract from the book because it doesn’t seem any of the couples like each other either! This is a book driven by tension and secrets—and terrible decision making.

Gabby is certainly the most likeable of the adult characters. I felt bad for her getting this mess of a vacation murder mystery dropped on her hands. Especially since it is taking her away from a sexual assault case that the reader can tell is important to Gabby. She leaves behind a victim to go spend her day interviewing these naughty rich people. She handles it like a pro, though! I guess if you’re a detective in the Hamptons, this isn’t the first case you’ve come across involving people like this.

Suspenseful and well-paced, with lots of twists and juicy reveals! Check your library if you’re in the US, mine had the audiobook available on Hoopla!

If you liked One Little Secret, what should you read next?

About the Author

Cate Holahan is a screenwriter and USA Today Bestselling author of psychological suspense books. Her sixth novel, The Darkness of Others, was published in 2022. She has had books named to Kirkus’ Best Books of the Year and Book of the Month Club’s official selections. Notable works include: One Little Secret, Lies She Told, The Widower’s Wife.

Her film, Deadly Estate, was on Fox’s Tubi in March, and her upcoming film, Dancers on the Darkside, will be coming out this year.

An award-winning journalist and former television producer, she has written for BusinessWeek, The Boston Globe, and The Record newspaper. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, two daughters, and dogs.

She has an MFA in dramatic writing from NYU’s Tisch and graduated from Princeton University in 2002.