Deadly secrets door S.R. Hawley

Michelle
Title: Deadly secrets
Author: S.R Hawley

This book is about a woman named Marissa Meade. She has lost her parents in a car accident when was little. She has just started to work at a radio station as promotion assistant. Riley Hertz is her boss. He’s the general manager of the station. He has very bad tempers and he’s hostile. Marissa comes to work 15 minutes late on her first day. Riley gets a very bad temper and doesn’t want to hear her excuse. Riley explains that he is going to expand the station and that he needs enough staff that can handle the pressure and responsibilities involved. Riley’s mood swings remind her of her ex-fiancé Justin Stone. She broke up with him because he is very possessive and loves his pick-up truck more than he loves her, but she still has feelings for him. It is time to meet everyone Riley tells her. He escorts her to the lobby and there she meets the receptionist Lila Fischer. Marissa judges her to be in her mid-forties. Riley has to prepare himself for a meeting with the owner of the station Mrs. Vaughn. He leaves Marissa in the hands of Lila. Lila escorts her around the station and tells her that she is going to be working with Jan Chambers. Jan forces a smile on her face when she meets Marissa. Jan looks like a fashion model. Lila says that she has a lot of work to finish so she leaves and tells Marissa to meet her at noon so that they can go to lunch. After Lila leaves Jan tells Marissa that she doesn’t need her, her degree doesn’t mean anything to her and that she has been promotion manager for 5 years and that she can do everything herself. Jan piles her up with a lot of paper work and leaves for the rest of the morning. Marissa finishes her work earlier than she has expected, she wants to impress Jan with her work so she begins to leaf through some files and she discovers and misfiled envelope. She opens it from curiosity and finds a list of names, sheets of paper that might be copies of obituary notices from newspapers. She finds a strange name: Frank N. Stein. She hears heels clattering so she puts everything away fast. When Jan walks in she tells her that she can go to lunch when she finishes her work early. Jan is on the telephone when she leaves.
Marissa and Lila go to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. Lila tells her that Jan has been after Riley’s money for as long as she can remember. After lunch they were standing along the roadside to wait for the traffic to clear up. Then suddenly a black pick-up truck screeches around the corner and parks in front of them. Marissa is surprised. It is her ex-fiancé. She knows that he wants her back. Lila leaves them, then Justin tells Marissa that he loves her and that he wants her back, but she doesn’t fall for that because she knows that she’s lying. They get into a big argument. He steps forward and grabs her by her arms and then Jan yells: Leave her alone. That’s when Justin leaves and Jan walks in the restaurant like nothing had happened. Marissa is embarrassed that she had witnessed everything. Marissa is busy on the phone selling accounts when Jan walks in the office. And tells her that she is pretty good for a beginner because she has sold 4 accounts. Then Riley walks in to check if everything is going fine. Jan starts to act like she and Marissa are best friends, and she puts her hand on Riley’s shoulder. Marissa decides to let Jan notice that she’s not after Riley. But then Riley turns to her and apologizes for his act that morning and wants to make it up to her. Marissa sees the rage in Jan’s eyes. They arrange that Riley picks her up at 7:00. Riley picks her up in his Jaguar. He drives very well. He tells her that the car is the company’s car. He also tells her that he has been working sins he was 16. His father and William Vaughn are partners in the radio station during the early days. And later his father bought Vaughn’s share. He left a stipulation that after his death that Mrs. Vaughn will become the owner and after Riley’s 30th birthday he will become the owner. Suddenly Riley says that he has apologized enough and that he wants to go out with her because he finds her attractive and wants to get to know her better. They eat barbeque after that they return to the car, Riley tries to kiss her but she pushes him away. When they arrive at her apartment he gives her a kiss on her cheek and he leaves. When Marissa arrives at the office the next day Jan tries to cover up some papers on her desk. Jan gives her a few papers that she has to make copies of. When she comes back the mysterious envelope that was on her desk is gone. Jan starts a campaign to make the radio station popular. It’s The-Made-In-The-Shade Giveaway. They print the name of the radio station KSHD on sunglasses and the first person they see wearing on gets a prize. The prizes vary from 100 dollars to 1000 dollars. When Riley walks in the office to bring Marissa coffee Jan tells him that she likes his new shoes and short after that they both leave for lunch. Marissa Gets jalouse. Opens Jan’s locked drawer with a paper clip and finds the envelope, there are different dates and names of infants that died shortly after they were born. When Jan comes back Lila calls her and tells her that Riley wants to see Marissa in his office. When Marissa arrives at her apartment she realizes that the door was unlocked and someone has broken in. But nothing is missing. Her first thought is that Justin has done it. She has at date with Riley, when he arrives she tells him what has happened and they decide to stay and call the police. The next day at work when Marissa enters her office she sees Jan tapping the paperclip that she used to open her drawer on her desk. Jan threatens to get her fired. Jan goes to Riley and tells him that she doesn’t think that Marissa is able to handle the responsibility of her job. Riley asks Marissa if she wants to meet Cynthia Vaughn. Marissa is pleased to meet Cynthia. After dinner Cynthia leaves in a limousine and Riley drives Marissa to her apartment. She picks up her mail and opens a strange white envelope, there’s a letter in it that says: GET OUT OR DIE. The next day Marissa has to make a report about the songs that the radio listeners want to hear. The report takes a whole day. She was frustrated by lunchtime and decides to go for lunch with Lila. When they are about to cross the street she sees someone spray painting on her car. She quickly runs to her car and the man drops the bottle and jumps over a wall and disappears into an alley. The car says: YOU DIE. Her first thought is that Justin did it. She and Lila return to the radio station to inform Riley about what has happened but he’s not in all morning. Lila offers her to stay at her apartment and pay for the damage of her car. She accepts the offer. Lila calls Riley and he comes over within fifteen minutes. Marissa tells him everything that has happened and then he gives her a hug and she sees that there is blue paint under is nails just like the color that is sprayed on her car. Marissa thinks that maybe Riley and Jan are doing this, and that Riley isn’t the man he appears to be. Marissa follows Jan to see where she’s going; she goes to a bar and starts to argue with a man. Marissa thinks that the man looks familiar. Riley asks her out so she goes back to her apartment to get some casual clothes while she’s there she opens her mailbox and finds a post card from Justin, it said that he’s in Alaska. The card is mailed before she received the threatening letter and before her car was painted so that proves that Justin is innocent. Riley and Marissa go to an art gallery, on the way back to Lila’s house Riley turns on the radio on his station and they hear that someone has won thousand dollars because he has been spotted with the winning sun glasses the name of the person is: Frank Stein. Marissa quickly discovers that that’s the name she saw on the paper in Jan’s secret envelope. The next morning at breakfast Marissa talks with Lila about everything that has happened and they first link Jan to be behind all of this, then they link Riley behind it. But they’re not sure maybe they’re working together. Marissa and Lila come up with a theory that Jan uses the name Frank N. Stein to fraud the station. So Marissa goes on a mission to retrieve the birth and death certificate of Frank N. Stein. After hours she tracks it down and makes a copy of it. When Marissa gets home she calls Lila and they find out that Riley is involved in this too. She decides to call the police then suddenly the man that Jan was talking with in the parking lot in front of the bar is standing behind her with a gun so she hangs up. The man drags her to a car, it’s Jan’s car with her driving. The trio drives to a green house somewhere far. There Marissa sees Riley tied and beaten up in a chair. Then suddenly Riley rises from his chair and knocks the gunman out. The gun falls on the ground and Marissa hits Jan and picks up the gun. That’s when their in control. Riley wants her to give him the gun. Can she trust him? Everything turns out just fine they go to the art gallery a few days later and sort everything out. Riley had nothing to do with it. All the pictures in the art gallery are painted by Riley but under a pseudonym. Riley paints Marissa and they agree that they wont keep any secrets from each other.

Opinion:

The beginning of this book was very boring. But then I got into the story and I didn’t want to stop reading it until I finished it. The story is written in the past tense, it was difficult to change it in the present tense but I succeeded. I think that there are to many details in the book like: from the weather to what the people are wearing to the expressions on their faces and small details about the outsides of buildings. But I really like this book.