The House of Secrets by Michelle Powers
Deceptive, Intriguing, Suspenseful
General/Crime Fiction/Thriller/Mystery
In the midst of an extremely unsatisfactory personal life, Autumn attends the funeral of her beloved Uncle Charles and is surprised to see her Auntie Ellie disembark from a limo, with her son, neither of whom she had seen for years. She recalled being smitten with her Aunt when she was younger, but as she grew up things had begun to change with the way she had felt about her, and therefore felt uneasy about being around her now. She was playing the part of the bereaved widow well but Autumn felt it was disingenuous. When her Aunt spots her, she reluctantly agrees to sit with her during the service, and Ellie says that she has something to ask her niece. Ellie offers Autumn a way out of the hellish situation in which she had unwittingly got herself into so many years ago, and despite Autumn’s initial reservations about the older woman, she agrees to the proposal. If you can’t trust your family, who can you trust….right? 
This is the first book that I have read, written by this Author. I follow a number of Authors on social media, of which, Michelle Powers is one. The title intrigued me, and as it had been a while since I had read a crime thriller, I thought it was about time I gave one a go again. The Prologue offers the reader a teasing insight into what may be about to happen which intrigued me further encouraging me to read on. 
From the first chapter, the Author explores the relationship between the two main protagonists and picks up other characters along the way together with a possible love interest for our main character. The latter I saw coming and felt that, that element was slightly contrived, as much as anything ever is in a novel, particularly with her immediately getting the job that had been spoken about, at her first meeting with Aiden. However, I am not aware of how situations work, like jobs in ‘one horse towns’ & Sheriff’s offices, being from the UK, so I could be wrong in that assumption. It just felt like it all slotted in too easily. The closeness between Autumn and her Aunt is touching and everything seems to going well for the pair so much so that, by the time I was half way through the book, I was honestly beginning to wonder if there would be a twist and what on earth the title meant. It was definitely worth the wait. 
When the bags (or totes) were discovered, I started to put two and two together, and when the twist was revealed, although I was proved correct, there was so much more that I really hadn’t even thought of. I think that the Author was right to stick to the light-hearted ‘normal’ narrative for as long as she did, as it really does make the eventual revelations that keep coming, all the more powerful. She struck the balance exactly right. 
The two main characters were likeable. I did think that it was odd at first, that Autumn should have agreed to Ellie’s proposal when not five minutes ago she had been so uncertain of her, but I understood that her reasons were for a fresh start and a better life, and not being able to think of any reason not to, why wouldn’t she? Thinking back now, it does seem strange that Autumn never ventures to all parts of Ellie’s property, but then I guess when you are initially, effectively a ‘guest’ of a relative that you have mixed feelings for, you wouldn’t push to look where you weren’t invited. Ellie’s eagerness to re-ingratiate herself with her niece was touching and it really seemed that Autumn had landed on her feet. However, now knowing the reason behind Ellie’s generous demeanour, it seems creepy. When the thread in the main storyline kicks in, due to Buddy’s story and the type of job he had, I had him in my sights, thinking that he was involved for quite a large portion of the novel. I was at a loss at this stage as to who else could have been a suspect. The Author did a good job of covering the perpetrator’s tracks underneath a cloak of very convincing familiarity and charm. When it came down to tracing the accomplice, this character, initially mentioned in the beginning of the book, and then unexpectedly making a ‘return’ when they have actually been in the background all along was a big surprise. This really left me speechless, and I had to look back at my notes to remind me of how the Author had explained that character. This is a smart tactic, to almost eliminate a character at the beginning of the book so that the reader later on does not even suspect that individual is involved in what has taken place. Once the dark secret is revealed, more shocking details just keep coming.
Having thought at the end of day one of reading this deceptive and intelligently assembled novel that I may have chosen a book that wasn’t going to be as stimulating I had perhaps been expecting, I am happy to say that the opposite is now the case, and I shall be reading more of Michelle’s work in the future.
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