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The Secrets Kept from His Daughter
Edward Hamilton’s Secrets Kept from His Daughter is a rich, character-driven story that weaves heartbreak, guilt, and love into a slow-burning emotional unraveling. The novel follows Chris Thomas, a once-devoted husband and father, as he quietly vanishes from his home and family in the middle of the night, leaving behind a trail of unanswered questions. At its heart, the book explores the rippling effects of silence—how unspoken traumas and bottled-up emotions can fracture even the strongest bonds. Through a dual narrative of Chris and those he left behind, including his wife Carol and best friend Aaron, Hamilton examines the weight of regret and the human urge to run from what haunts us.
What grabbed me immediately was the rawness of Hamilton’s writing. The first chapter lands with a gut punch—Chris rolling away in the night, not as an act of cowardice, but a desperate bid to protect his family from his inner torment. It’s not flashy or dramatic; it’s quiet and devastating. That moment when Carol’s daughter, Melissa, tells her, “He kissed me butterflies and left,” actually choked me up. The writing isn’t trying to be clever—it’s just deeply honest. And I respect that. The scenes in Carol’s perspective are particularly strong. Her descent from confusion to devastation feels real, especially when she opens Chris’s manuscript and realizes he finished his book without telling her. That moment of betrayal hit hard, not just because of what he did—but because of what he didn’t do.
Some monologues felt a little too introspective—like the dream sequences with Aaron. While they helped build mood, I occasionally found myself pulled out of the story. But even then, I couldn’t help but admire how well Hamilton captured the feeling of being stuck between what you want to say and what you actually do. Aaron’s scenes with Sharon were some painfully familiar emotional disconnect. That confusion, that longing for someone to meet you halfway. Hamilton nails that quiet heartbreak. Not with big declarations—but in the silence between them.
Secrets Kept from His Daughter is not a fast read, and it’s not light. But it’s worth sitting with. It’s a story for people who have lived through messy relationships, who understand that love doesn’t always mean clarity, and that sometimes the ones we love most are the ones we hurt without meaning to. I’d recommend this to readers who enjoy introspective, emotionally layered fiction with real, flawed characters.
Pages: 237 | ASIN : B0DZPGK148
The Killing Kind
The Killing Kind is a gritty, high-octane crime thriller that throws you headfirst into the darkest corners of humanity. Set in a bleak Australian city plagued by a string of grotesque abductions and murders, the story follows Detective Sergeant Paul Anderson, a worn-down, whiskey-soaked investigator trying to hold himself and the case together. When Catherine Elliott, a missing woman thought to be dead, reemerges traumatized but alive, a twisted network of abuse, trauma, and corruption begins to unravel. As Paul navigates his crumbling personal life and the mounting pressure from the public and media, the reader is dragged into a murky world where no one escapes clean.
The opening scene with Catherine crawling away from her captors was raw and horrifying. Hamilton doesn’t ease you in. He grabs you by the collar and throws you into it. The prose is punchy, blunt, and sometimes brutally descriptive. The prologue alone had me clenching my jaw. And while it can be over-the-top in its violence, there’s an authenticity in how the characters respond to their trauma. Paul, in particular, is a fascinating mess. His scenes with Billie—the young bar owner who offers him comfort, and then some, walk a strange line between vulnerable and morally muddy, and I couldn’t look away. The contrast between his broken-down soul and her unexpected tenderness made those scenes oddly tender and uncomfortable all at once.
Just when you’re in the thick of a serious plot twist, Hamilton slaps you with a sharp turn into explicit territory. Still, the character work redeems it. Sharon’s chapter, where she wakes up bruised, broken, and unsure of what happened the night before, was honestly one of the most harrowing depictions of domestic abuse I’ve read. And then there’s Danielle Wise, a detective digging through old social media records, who adds this whole layer of procedural nerdiness that I enjoyed. Her backstory with Bridget was refreshingly open and real, it gave me a break from all the pain without feeling like filler.
I recommend The Killing Kind. This book isn’t shy. It’s for people who can stomach the dark stuff and appreciate characters that feel real even when they’re doing ugly things. If you’re into thrillers that flirt with noir, crime procedurals with grit, and stories where the city feels like a character in itself, you’ll want this on your shelf.
Pages: 266 | ASIN : B0DZPFX5D9
LITERARY TITAN 