Little Secrets

Aspiring journalist Rose Blakey, the protagonist of Snoekstra’s uneven second thriller (after 2016’s Only Daughter), is desperate to escape her small town of Colmstock, Australia, and her unhappy family. Spending evenings serving beer to the local cops, one of whom spends most of his time leering at her, is not how she pictured her life. When the courthouse burns down, killing a child, the town residents are devastated, and when someone begins leaving porcelain dolls on doorsteps, people are further alarmed. Rose sees opportunity and submits a lurid story about the dolls to a newspaper. After it’s accepted, the ecstatic Rose plows unthinkingly over anyone who disagrees with her, while the inept police only help fuel the town’s growing hysteria. Rather than plumb the dark depths of a town in economic ruin, Snoekstra instead presents a chorus line of people behaving very badly. The many twists (one of which offers a bit of clever irony) and the big reveal will mainly strain reader credulity. [em]Agent: Mackenzie Fraser-Bub, Fraser-Bub Literary. (Oct.) [/em]