REVIEW: The Secret She Keeps by Lena Diaz

In The Secret She Keeps by Lena Diaz, Raine Quintero is running out of time to prove her brother shouldn’t be executed by the state for a murder he confessed to committing. He’s the only family she has left and she doesn’t want to lose him. Desperate, she kidnaps PI Callum Wright. At the time of her brother’s arrest, Callum was a police officer working with the Detective that arrested him. In order to convince him to work with her, she presents him with evidence that may to lead to finding a serial killer that he and his team at Unfinished Business have been trying to track down.

Callum’s not thrilled with being kidnapped, but he is convinced that Raine can help his investigation, so he agrees to help her. What neither expects is for feelings to develop. Callum, despite believing Raine’s investigation is a lost cause, admires her determination to find out the truth. Raine respects Callum and the lengths he goes to in order to discover the truth. But what they dig up may not be what Raine was hoping for, and her involvement with the Unfinished Business case may have put her in the sights of a killer.

This book is the fourth book in the Tennessee Cold Case series. I have not read the previous books and felt that it works well as a standalone. There were a couple of things that made me feel like I was missing something from a previous book, but they weren’t the main focus points of this story, and didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the story.

While I liked the story, at times it felt like the book was dragging. There were a couple of sections I ended up skimming through because they felt unnecessarily long. I admired Lena’s determination to save her brother, but found her insistence that everyone was wrong about him to be slightly aggravating. At times she appears to have blinders on, refusing to accept the evidence in front of her if it doesn’t support the outcome that she wants. As the book progresses, she does become more open-minded and I found myself enjoying her character more.

The investigation into the brother overshadows the romance. Because of this, I found myself more interested in what was going on with the case rather than what was happening between Raine and Callum. If you’re looking for a book that focuses more on the mystery and suspense than the romance, this would fit that bill.

If you enjoy stories involving serial killers and murder investigations with a little friendly kidnapping and romance thrown in, you’re in luck with The Secret She Keeps. While I had a few issues with the story, I enjoyed it overall and would recommend that readers of mystery and suspense give it a read.

Book Info:

Publication: October 24, 2023 | Harlequin Intrigue | Tennessee Cold Case #4

Raine Quintero is so desperate she’s willing to kidnap PI Callum Wright, the one person who can help stay her brother’s execution. Raine raises the stakes by offering a lead on a killer Callum’s pursuing—without revealing the secret she’s actually keeping. Racing against time, they must find the answers before one man dies—and another kills again.