Most thrillers have to catch the reader’s attention early enough to make it worthwhile staying around for the payoff. However, THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS starts slowly and doesn’t gain steam until Part Two, midway through the book. But then the steam rises off every last page.

There are echoes of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN in this novel, which is also set in London and is a story of “have” and “have-not” women. Agatha, who is pregnant when we first meet her, works in a supermarket stocking shelves, but is obviously educated, whip-smart and living at a level above her current job status. Meghan lives nearby in a comfortable house where she writes a mummy blog and looks after her two children. She’s married to Jack, an attractive sportscaster, and they’re expecting a third, unplanned child in December. The two women meet a couple of times, and Agatha makes a point of befriending Meg, whom she idolizes for her effortless good looks, her family life and her aura of fulfillment.

"Though the book alternates between Agatha's and Meg’s voices, it’s Agatha’s that grips the reader in this impressively compelling story of maternal love and loss."

Agatha’s own life, as we begin to see, has been very difficult, starting with a sexual relationship that she was forced into as a teenager. When she became pregnant, her parents never asked that the father --- a Jehovah’s Witness like her family --- be punished. Instead, they gave away the baby without Agatha’s permission, prompting her to run away from home. A few years later she married, but that relationship ended in tragedy.

Now, Agatha wants to be a mother again and settle down with her sometime boyfriend, Hayden, who is in the Navy. When Hayden, who has been at sea for seven months, seems unwilling to assume the responsibilities of fatherhood, Agatha visits his parents to enlist them. She has an uncanny ability to persuade people to see her side of a situation.

Meg, meanwhile, has a happy marriage but has committed an infidelity that weighs heavily on her, especially as she gets closer to her delivery. She knows the specific date because this time she will be having a cesarean section. It’s comforting that she and her new friend Agatha can talk about their aches and pains together, as their due dates are so close together and Jack is never around lately.

Slowly it becomes apparent what has been going on in Agatha’s mind, though author Michael Robotham is stealthy in the evidence he shares. But by the time Meg delivers, the reader is on high alert --- and will stay that way for the remainder of the book. However relaxed the first half was, the next 200 pages are all high octane. More important, in a way, is that as Robotham becomes laser-focused on Agatha and her maneuvering, a portrait emerges of an impressively complex character as she loses control over her plans and her own self.

Though the book alternates between Agatha's and Meg’s voices, it’s Agatha’s that grips the reader in this impressively compelling story of maternal love and loss.