Book Review: Our Secrets Were Safe

By Jami Denison

“Old friends who have a secret” has become such a trope in crime fiction that authors need to come up with bigger and more audacious plot points to keep readers entertained and make sure their books stand out in a crowded market. In novelist Virginia Trench’s debut, Our Secrets Were Safe, the secrets are numerous and the characters are haunted. With class divides, evil stepfathers, and secret love affairs, readers may need a spreadsheet to keep track of all the action.

Ten years ago, college students Caroline and Brooke were in a car accident that killed Sofia, Caroline’s childhood friend/ex-lover and current lover of Caroline’s half-brother Leo. Now, on the brink of Brooke’s wedding and Caroline’s career success, Sofia has returned—or someone claiming to be her. Stalking the women via text, “Sofia” threatens to reveal what really happened the night of the accident—along with all the other secrets the women have been keeping. When another college friend is found dead, Caroline and Brooke realize that Sofia is dangerous. How far will they go to keep their secrets safe?

Trench’s prose is strong, lively, and compelling. She writes in close third person from the perspectives of Caroline and Brooke in the present, and Sofia in the past. While Caroline gives too much information about her job and Sofia seems unstable and vengeful from the get-go, Brooke is a captivating character, with complications and a back story that could have supported a novel only about her. 

The book’s biggest challenge is the huge number of characters and the complicated histories they all bring with them. The first few chapters are particularly confusing. We meet Brooke at her sister’s baby shower, and there are so many people and so many agendas that it’s not clear who the point-of-view character is. By the ending, most of the characters have revealed themselves as unsympathetic—except for Brooke—so it’s hard to care about what really happened to Sofia. 

Still, Our Secrets Were Safe held my attention throughout. Trench is a very strong writer, and the set-ups she creates all have pay-offs. I look forward to her follow-up. 

Thanks to Crown for the book in exchange for an honest review.

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