William Morrow All Her Little Secrets

I spent a whole summer reading the collected works of John Grisham. It was an interesting experiment that familiarized me with the legal fiction genre. What I took from this book is that it mirrors a lot of the suspense and intrigue of Grisham’s thrillers. This time, from a different perspective that doesn’t usually get the spotlight. The black female perspective opens up the door for a whole host of issues to be explored that set up current and relevant character interactions.I didn’t like the main narrator’s voice. It was forced and full of detail that didn’t add to the story. The added random perspective switch two thirds of the way through the book was also off and broke the flow. I think that had the book been in third person another rich layer of detail could have been added to round the characters out more and make some of the more obvious plot turns less predictable.What I do love is that book also serves as love letter and critique of Atlanta and the blending of new and old south. The undercurrent of race, politics, religion, and sexism runs throughout the pages. The cringy moments when the author dives into these subjects are what really give this book life. A further exploration into these topics, combined with a omniscient glimpse into the perspectives of all the characters involved would have really set this book apart. That said, this was a great and entertaining debut effort Wanda Morris.

It is a good story and keep the readers interest. While race plays an important part in the overall story, I thought some of the race discussions were overdone and unnecessary in building the story. They seemed to follow a common narrative and added very little. That said, overall I would recommend.

When you first meet Ellice Littlejohn, here’s what you know:1. She’s a successful, Ivy-league educated attorney.2. She’s impeccably put together in tailored designer clothing.3. She has been having an affair with her married, white boss Michael who she just found dead in his office.With composure that only someone who has been through worse can muster, Ellice collects herself and leaves the office, pretending she was never there.Instantly I knew Ellice was not an average character in any way. She is a woman with a perfect exterior, but behind it she is flawed, damaged, resilient, and strong.But there’s more… Ellice has a past. A deep, dark, leave-it-all-behind-and-never-tell-anyone kind of past. She didn’t just grow up poor, she grew up barely able to survive. The kind of poor where people take advantage of you. The kind of poor where no one comes to your aid when you need help. The kind of poor, black life that the rich, white good-ole-boys at work would judge her for.I really enjoyed the chapters telling her past and learning about the people who shaped Ellice, in good ways and in bad ones. Ellice’s past seems separate from what is happening in the present, but ultimately this is a book about how you never truly leave your past behind.In present day, Ellice quickly finds herself promoted into her dead boss’s role. And while this is the job of her dreams, nothing about this feels ok. Ellice knows that her education and performance only had so much to do with this promotion—she’s the token black board member in a time the company is facing pressure about racism.And someone knows about Ellice’s secrets and is threatening to expose them. As Ellice struggles to keep her past hidden, perform her new role, and dig into what really happened to Michael, she soon learns that everything she thought made her life so secure can unravel with the pull of a single thread.This book is not only an expertly crafted thriller at the top of the genre, it also is an unapologetically black story about a black woman in a white corporate world facing racism, sexism, and corruption at the highest of levels. This book delivers for those looking for a thriller, but you’ll be hard pressed to read it and not learn more empathy for black women in the corporate world. One of the best books I read in the past year—this should be on every thriller-reader’s list!

Yes, this is a murder mystery, but it is far more commentary on the difficulties of minorities to get ahead. Ellice Littlejohn, a female attorney with some experience, is shocked to find that she has been appointed General Counsel of a trucking firm after her boss is found murdered in his office. She is from a small rural town where she endured a dysfunctional, impoverished past, but managed to get a scholarship to a boarding school which turned her life around.But sinister forces are at work. Her promotion is not based on her legal expertise, but is based on secrets from her past that can be used to control her if she is not a “team” player, which apparently her boss was not.The book is not particularly compelling: the plot is weak, the characters are not interesting, and the diversity topic is on every other page.

This book has a great story. But I am giving up which I never do. It is a political commentary on Black v White and how wronged the Blacks are in the US, even in corporate America. While I love the plot and am interested in what happens and how it all plays out, I cannot read through the author’s political agenda and all her “digs” on how wronged her race is. Her main character was given a chance to attend a boarding school which took her from poverty to Georgetown and then to Yale and yet still she cannot get past the race issue, even while in a top executive position. I love the story but not being preached to, especially from someone who has been given many opportunities that others do not have. This book is gong in the trash.