Little Secrets by Anna Snoekstra

Author: Anna Snoekstra
Publisher: MIRA
Date of publication: October 2017

What happens when ambition trumps the truth?

A town reeling in the wake of tragedy

An arsonist is on the loose in Colmstock, Australia, most recently burning down the town's courthouse and killing a young boy who was trapped inside.. 

An aspiring journalist desperate for a story

The clock is ticking for Rose Blakey. With nothing but rejections from newspapers piling up, her job pulling beers for cops at the local tavern isn't nearly enough to cover rent. Rose needs a story-a big one. 

Little dolls full of secrets

In the weeks after the courthouse fire, precise porcelain replicas of Colmstock's daughters begin turning up on doorsteps, terrifying parents and testing the limits of the town's already fractured police force. 

Rose may have finally found her story. But as her articles gain traction and the boundaries of her investigation blur, Colmstock is seized by a seething paranoia. Soon, no one is safe from suspicion. And when Rose's attention turns to the mysterious stranger living in the rooms behind the tavern, neighbor turns on neighbor and the darkest side of self-preservation is revealed.

Little Secrets is about a small working class town in Australia where too many secrets and too many hot tempers end up causing a lot of damage to the community.  In the wake of a tragic fire where a child was killed, dolls start showing up on the door steps of the children in the town.  They strangely look like the children they are left for.  Rose is looking for a story that will give her a big break in the world of journalism and uses this one as her jumping board.

I really disliked this book.  I probably should have DNF'd it, but I kept holding out hope I would end up least liking something.   It also took me forever to read and I ended up switching to audio to finish it out quicker.. Nothing happens in a large majority of the book.  I know not every story can have all likable characters, but at least one could go a long way to making the story good.  I couldn't find one nice character in this book.  Even the little kids are kind of brats.  The protagonist almost had my sympathy for a while, but she ended up being just as detestable as the rest of them.

I never really felt the mystery aspect of the book.  Finding out all of the secrets was kind of a let down.  There was one twist that did take me by surprise, but it seriously wasn't enough to save the book for me. Even that twist, which was one of the big ones, never really was addressed again after it was revealed.  You would think there would be some repercussions, but no.  In the end, they all kind of got what they deserved and were probably looking at miserable lives ahead.  I'm not really sure I would recommend this one.  It's is really dark and I guess if you like that sort of book, you could give it a shot. Otherwise, I would say skip it.