Like M.E. Hilliard’s debut novel, The Unkindness of Ravens, the newest in her Greer Hogan Mystery series, Three Can Keep a Secret, grabbed me from the onset. The first person narration rapidly pulls the reader in the the thought processes of amateur sleuth, Greer Hogan, a former New York City high-powered executive who becomes a small town librarian after the death of her husband. Greer’s intelligence and personality shine through from the onset. I immediately bonded with a gal who calls herself a “girl detective” and who’s read all the Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew mysteries and prefers Trixie to Nancy because Trixie “got into more trouble.” Despite her affinity for childhood heroines, Hilliard aligns her protagonist with others within the mystery genre, including Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and Hercules Poirot.
Hilliard has also done a bang-up job in creating a chilling gothic atmosphere complete with a spooky, creaky old mansion-turned-public-library, populated by dark Victorian images of the former owners of the manor, the requisite nooks and crannies, creaking floors, shoddy electrical wiring, drafty windows, and ravens inside and out. The plot is well-constructed with plenty of twists and turns, but remains plausible. When Anita Hunzeker, the universally disliked, battle-ax chair of the library board of trustees, is run off the road and killed, there are plenty of suspects. Greer jumps in to help the police solve the mystery.
As far as character arc, there’s some nice long-term personal growth. Though Greer has reinvented her life after the death of her husband, she is coming to terms with feeling that the man jailed for the crime is innocent and is almost ready to turn her attention to solving that very personal murder.
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Three Can Keep a Secret (Crooked Lane Books, February 7, 2023) is available through:
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You can see my review of the first in this series, The Unkindness of Ravens, here and my review of Shadow in the Glass here.
You can read my interview with M. E. Hilliard here.
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