Rose Blakey feels trapped. She wants more than anything to be a journalist yet continues to receive rejection after rejection on all her applications. To make matters even more disheartening, her small town of Colmstock, Australia, is on the decline. The once pleasant village is now broken and ugly. People are not as friendly as they once were, social drinking has turned into meth addiction for many residents, crime rates are up, and local employers are beginning to close with stunning regularity.

All of these issues may have one infamous moment as their catalyst. An arsonist burns down the town's courthouse, leaving ashes in its wake. More powerful is the fact that a young boy is trapped inside the burning building. An ominous prologue highlights the burning of the building and the horror as the local fire crew and the residents who witness the blaze come to the realization that someone has perished.

"Anna Snoekstra does a nice job of creating atmosphere and putting the reader directly inside the lives of a handful of people who may represent the end of the innocence for their small town."

Rose, working as a waitress at a local tavern, has made it her commitment to expose the truth behind this murderous act. Little does she know that her work threatens to reveal a serial arsonist with a disturbing agenda initially unknown to the residents of the once sleepy village of Colmstock. That's when the dolls start. An article by Rose entitled "Porcelain Terror in Colmstock" highlights the fact that a number of local families, each with a young daughter, have found porcelain dolls turning up on their front doorsteps. What is the meaning of this, and how and why does it relate to the arsonist at large?

The creepiest thing of all is that each of the porcelain dolls bears a striking resemblance to the young girls for whom they were left --- sort of like a horrific version of American Girl Doll via small town Australia. Rose is like a pit bull with this story, seeing it as a chance to make it big and finally break away from her little town. What she doesn't realize is that she is drawing the ire of a very dangerous person who may very well turn their attention to her and seek to silence her voice --- and pen --- permanently. It's no secret that Rose may be in the villain’s crosshairs when her own sister, Laura, becomes the recipient of one of these mysterious dolls.

Rose thinks she may have a lead --- a local man who she believes may be a drug kingpin pivotal in the meth trade that has been tearing Colmstock down from the inside out. It is terribly dangerous of her to try to expose someone like that without enough evidence.  What may be even more troubling is that she may possibly have her eyes trained on the wrong villain. Either way, Rose's long-dreamed-about journalistic success is coming at a huge price, and both her family and the entire village of Colmstock may have to pay. The person who soon is referred to as the Doll Collector is far from through with the people of Colmstock.

In LITTLE SECRETS, Anna Snoekstra does a nice job of creating atmosphere and putting the reader directly inside the lives of a handful of people who may represent the end of the innocence for their small town. We learn along the way that even the smallest of places have their secrets, and some of them tend to latch on to you and continue to cling, even while you are doing everything in your power to escape and leave them far behind.