The sensational new novel from “one of the most talented crime writers alive” (The Washington Post)
The photo on the card shows a boy
who was found murdered, a year ago, on the grounds of a girls’ boarding
school in the leafy suburbs of Dublin. The caption says I KNOW WHO
KILLED HIM.
Detective Stephen Moran has been
waiting for his chance to get a foot in the door of Dublin’s Murder
Squad—and one morning, sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey brings him this
photo. “The Secret Place,” a board where the girls at St. Kilda’s School
can pin up their secrets anonymously, is normally a mishmash of gossip
and covert cruelty, but today someone has used it to reignite the
stalled investigation into the murder of handsome, popular Chris Harper.
Stephen joins forces with the abrasive Detective Antoinette Conway to
find out who and why.
But everything they discover
leads them back to Holly’s close-knit group of friends and their fierce
enemies, a rival clique—and to the tangled web of relationships that
bound all the girls to Chris Harper. Every step in their direction turns
up the pressure. Antoinette Conway is already suspicious of Stephen’s
links to the Mackey family. St. Kilda’s will go a long way to keep
murder outside their walls. Holly’s father, Detective Frank Mackey, is
circling, ready to pounce if any of the new evidence points toward his
daughter. And the private underworld of teenage girls can be more
mysterious and more dangerous than either of the detectives imagined.
The Secret Place is a powerful, haunting exploration of friendship and loyalty, and a gripping addition to the Dublin Murder Squad series.