What will happen to Mike Cameron when he enters into what looks like a dodgy property deal in southern Spain?

Deadly Secrets starts with Mike entering into a business deal, code-named Project Pulpo, which involves the reclassification of some rustic land in Los Cipreses, Spain. He tells his old friend and future business partner, Andy Montalvo, about the deal but Mike gives him very little information. Soon after, but before Andy was due to join Mike’s business, Mike dies in a mysterious accident.

 

Andy decides to do some digging around to see if his death was really an accident or if it was murder? In the meantime, Mike’s ex-wife, Ann, has a suspicious young boyfriend who is demanding money from her to buy a bar and is asking questions about Mike’s wills. The people involved in Project Pulpo are up to some shady deals behind the scenes as well.

This book naturally appealed to me because I am a huge fan of crime and thriller novels. It was not only title and the alluring front cover but also the interesting blurb, which immediately grabbed my attention. I think these are essential but often underrated parts of a book, which are even more important for a first-time novelist, such as Robert Tenison.

I really like the author’s style of writing because he is extremely descriptive of his characters and his settings; he gives you a very clear picture of the surroundings and of what the characters are like. He uses this to his advantage by showing us the fake side of some of the characters right until almost the end of the book. Near the end you are certain that you know what all the characters are like, but then he unexpectedly flips the character over and makes the reader completely rethink everything they believed about that character.

I think what makes Deadly Secrets such an entertaining and instructive book is the amount of depth he goes into about the subject of business deals, of how the police operate in Spain and the Spanish UDYCO and how they go about their investigations. He has thoroughly researched his topics to make the readers understand more about the subjects.

I enjoyed the action scenes at the end and particularly how all people were killed off. It was very interesting that he chose to have the crimes covered up in an obvious way. It made it easier for the readers to see that people were really murdered, but I personally found it a little disappointing because I like a writer to really make me think about how and why the murder was committed.

Tenison kept my attention right to the very end of the book but he also made me wonder about what would happen to some of the characters later, which shows that he really made me interested in their lives and how they live.

Overall I would recommend Deadly Secrets to all who love to read about crime but also to businessmen, so they can make sure they are not being unknowingly led into something illegal!

 

© 2011 Emily Claire Cannings