Little Secrets

The less you know before starting this book, the better. So if you haven't read it yet, begin before you learn too much about it.

Child abduction is a harrowing subject, made even more personal and intense when viewed through the lens of parenthood. Jennifer Hillier's Little Secrets dives into this theme with the story of Marin and Derek, whose four-year-old son, Sebastian, is kidnapped in a moment of distraction. Marin briefly lets go of her son's hand to check a message at a market, and in those few moments, a kidnapper disguised as Santa Claus vanishes with him. Surveillance footage captures this moment but provides no clues about Sebastian's fate.

Marin is devastated. Consumed by guilt and despair, she hires a private detective after the police reach a dead end. This PI, whom Derek knows nothing about, doesn't yield many results about their son but does reveal Derek's affair with a younger woman. Fearing the loss of her husband as well as her son, Marin decides to take matters into her own hands.

Although I didn't find the plot as satisfying as I had hoped, and I was frustrated by Marin's continual forgiveness of Derek despite his previous infidelities, including one during her pregnancy, I did enjoy the book's strong character development and fast-paced story.