Edwin Hill

Edwin Hill’s latest standalone thriller is called The Secrets We Share. He is also the Edgar- and Agatha Award-nominated author of the Hester Thursby mystery series, including Little Comfort, The Missing Ones, and Watch Her.

Interview by Elise Cooper

Q. Will this be a series?

Edwin: This is stand-alone. I wrote a series called “Hester Thursby” and I pulled some of the characters from that series into this one. I am thinking of writing a series with Natalie because a lot of people like her.

Q. Where did you get the idea for the story?

Edwin: After I wrote a scene where a child went into an abandoned warehouse and set it in Boston during the fall, everything fell into place. This is my pandemic book. I consider there to be four female leads: Glenn, her sister Natalie, Mavis, Glenn’s daughter, and Angela. All the women were connected to the crime. The biggest theme of the book is no one can escape their past and must face it.

Q. Can you describe Natalie?

Edwin: The protagonist of the story is Natalie, an awesome detective. Natalie likes to follow rules, procrastinates, is rigid, unyielding, and does not like to stand out. She had a childhood that stymied her growth. She drinks too much because of the secrets she has carried from her childhood. Even off-duty, Natalie dresses like a Boston cop, preferring practical clothes and unfussy, pinned-up hair She has a very good relationship with her sister, Glenn.

Q. Can you describe Glenn?

Edwin: A highly successful person, who pushes boundaries, is controlling, driven, bossy, and bold. Glenn has a baking blog. She is standing at the cuff of fame. I hope I contrasted the way the two sisters look and view the world. Glenn has this red hair and Natalie is plain. Glenn, seems tailor-made for the spotlight, from her signature red mane to her camera-ready smile. Glenn’s daughter and Natalie’s niece is Mavis, a twelve-year-old.

Q. What about Mavis?

Edwin: She is precocious, pushes the boundaries, and uses coping mechanisms to get through life. Mavis compartmentalizes and is a methodical person. She can envision where she will be in a few steps and goes through those steps to get there, which is why she is good at math and likes to play chess.

Q. What’s next?

Edwin: It is set in Massachusetts, the southern coast. There is a murder where Brock London, who was in this book goes to investigate because he is a state cop. The working title is A Bad Behavior and will be out in 2023.

Review by Elise Cooper

The Secrets We Share by Edwin Hill is both a police procedural and a domestic thriller. Each character in the story has a secret, especially two sisters whose secrets go back to childhood.

The book has two timelines, the past in the 1990s, and the present. The two sisters, Glenn and Natalie, share secrets going back to the murder of their father years earlier. Fast forward to the present day where Glenn’s twelve-year-old daughter, Mavis, discovers two dead bodies, her father and Glenn’s husband, and a body found in an abandoned warehouse she entered on a dare. Natalie, a detective, must now balance her loyalty to the law with her loyalty to her family as she investigates the murders. Both sisters realize they are being stalked, are left disparaging social media messages, notes, and clues. Besides the murder, the sisters must find the person out for revenge.

This is a fast-paced story full of twists. The author hinted that there might be more in store for Natalie.

Edwin Hill's Latest

The Secrets We Share

At first glance, Natalie Cavanaugh and Glenn Abbott hardly look like sisters. Even off-duty, Natalie dresses like a Boston cop, preferring practical clothes and unfussy, pinned-up hair. Her younger sister, Glenn, seems tailor-made for the spotlight, from her signature red mane to her camera-ready smile. Glenn has spent years cultivating her brand through her baking blog, and with the publication of her new book, that hard work seems about to pay off. But her fans have no idea about the nightmare in Glenn and Natalie’s past.

Twenty years ago, their father’s body was discovered in the woods behind their house. A trauma like that doesn’t fit with Glenn’s public image. Yet, maybe someone reading her blog does know something. There have been anonymous online messages, vague yet ominous, hinting that she’s being watched. And with unsettling coincidences hitting ever closer to home, both Glenn and Natalie soon have more pressing matters to worry about, especially when a dead body is found in an abandoned building . . .

Natalie is starting to wonder how much Glenn really knows about the people closest to her. But are there also secrets Natalie has yet to uncover about those she herself trusts? For two decades, she’s believed their father was murdered by their neighbor, with whom he was having an affair. But if those events are connected to what’s happening now, maybe there’s much more that Natalie doesn’t know. About their father. About their neighbors. About her friends. Maybe even about herself.

But there are no secrets between sisters . . . are there?