5 🍀 Review – Forgotten Secrets by Robin Perini

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This was interesting read, an episode of Criminal Minds with a romantic twist. I love a good suspense/mystery and Perini delivers on all levels.

There were a number of twists, turns and red herrings throughout the novel, which kept you guessing right up until the end. There were many layers to the narrative which I find a lot of good suspense novels are missing lately.

Thayne Blackwood’s sister goes missing and he must call in a favour with the woman he spent one week with a year ago to help find her. Riley Lambert is an FBI profiler propelled by the devastating kidnapping of her own sister 15 years prior.

Perini manages to weave a complicated storyline with well developed characters. Even the secondary characters all play their role to different degrees in moving the narrative forward. No one is there simply for the sake of filler.

I truly enjoyed being presented with a woman in law enforcement who doesn’t have the stereotypical penchant for “girly” things, as if being in law enforcement makes her less feminine and needs to make up for that deficient. Riley is unapologetically good at her job and through the investigation must deal with her own thoughts and feeling about her past, her relationship with Thayne, if there’ll even be one, and how all of this affects her present.

Having one of the main secondary characters suffer from Alzheimer’s was a bold choice. Perini explains her choice in the afterword, and it’s something that holds dear to me personally. But, as a reader, I found her descriptions of the mannerism and events surrounding someone suffering from this disease to be exacting, expressive and empathetic. This was not a  character flaw just stand out, the elements and effects of this disease weaved their way throughout the narrative.

I would have loved to have seen more of a build up to Thayne and Riley’s relationship, but Perini illustrates their connection well, and it is above all else believable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read and am looking forward to her next instalment in the Singing River Legacy.