Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another review! For this review, I get into the second Tami Hoag book I’ve checked out, which is also the second in the series I started. I’ve really enjoyed the Oak Knoll series so far, and am excited to check out the third (and I believe final book) in the series. So let’s get into it!
Main Characters:
- Anne Leone: In the first book, she was unmarried, in this one, it’s the future and she and Vince are married, Anne is working as a child advocate and gets swept up into a case with Vince
- Vince Leone: Married to Anne and retired from the FBI, Vince works giving advice on cases, when a murdered woman is found in Oak Knoll he goes in to help
- Marissa Fordham: Was found brutally murdered along with her toddler Haley who was found near death by her mother’s body
- Tony Mendez: Now Sheriff’s Deputy, gets put onto the case of finding out what happened to Marissa
Some warnings for future readers:
- Includes violent descriptions of murder
- Includes descriptions of harm to children
My Review
Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag is the second book in the Oak Knoll series, and the second look into the returning characters. I read the first book in the series Deeper than the Dead a few months ago and really enjoyed it. I liked Secrets to the Grave a lot, but I do think that I liked Deeper than the Dead a bit better. I gave Secrets to the Grave a 7/10 rating.
I loved getting to reconnect with Anne, Vince, and Tony again. They were such enjoyable characters in Deeper than the Dead that I was happy to see them all back. Really the only character from the first book that doesn’t show up in this one is Tommy, even the dreaded Dennis Farman makes his return. I was kind of disappointed that Tommy and his mother weren’t in this book. I got why they weren’t as this was a book about Oak Knoll, and they aren’t there anymore, but I still wanted to know what happened to them. Peter Crane also hasn’t gone to trial yet in this book so maybe in the third, it will focus back on the Crane family. I will say that I don’t think you have to read the first book to understand the second one, but I will say that I think it would help. This book is a year after the see no evil killer, who was the local dentist Peter Crane, who also tried to kill Anne, was caught. Anne and Vince are now married (which was so sweet I was pumped that they were married) and trying to start their lives together. Anne is dealing heavily with the aftermath of Peter’s attack on her, and this does become a bit of a big plot in the book. I don’t think you have to know every detail of what happened to understand her struggles, and Tami does give a good quick description of what happened but I feel like just knowing about it made it easier to understand what was going on. It really just helped me understand why all the characters in this book had issues when you know what happened in the first book.
The biggest thing that I disliked about this book was how Anne essentially got the shit end of the stick again, just for being a nice person. When Marissa Fordham is found brutally murdered, her 4-year-old daughter Haley is found lying next to her half-dead, and the Sheriff’s Department springs into action. Anne, who is now specializing in child advocacy steps in to help Haley as it seems her mother has no family to claim her. Anne also continues visiting Dennis Farman, the little blood lover in the first book, who is now at a Psychiatric hospital. Despite all she’s been through Anne continues to be a kind a loving woman, but again in this book, she gets beat up the most! I was like oh my god can we let this woman breathe, please?! I just felt like she was kind of being unfairly picked on as being the person everyone takes their anger out on. I mean I also just didn’t like that Anne’s kindness and desire to help others would put her in all of these dangerous situations. I mean there is this air to it in which Anne kind of puts herself into these dangerous situations, but it’s also crazy because these dangerous situations include children, so I mean who wouldn’t help? I felt like despite the things Anne had been through she was a bit too naive in this book. I mean it’s clear the trauma changes her, but it doesn’t exactly make her more aware. I think that Tami passes this off as her being married to Vince and feeling protected always, but there were some parts where I was just shaking my head at her because she should have caught on.
In terms of the main mystery in the book which is the murder of Marissa, I really enjoyed the mystery. I found it to be super dynamic and definitely kept me guessing. I definitely had a different idea of who the killer was, although I felt like I should have guessed it. I think in a book like this it’s really the relationships between the characters that make it so hard to put down. The love between Anne and Vince is hard to tear away from and you always just root for good things for them, even though the two can’t seem to not find themselves in a bad situation. I didn’t love Tony in this book very much. Don’t get me wrong I still liked his character but it changed a bit from how he was in the first book. In the first, he was a little more non-emotional and used his skills and knowledge to help solve cases. In this one (I am not sure if maybe it’s because he was promoted) but he’s a bit more cocky and flimsy with a procedure on things and it wasn’t my favourite change up. Before he had a bit more to prove and was hungry to solve the mystery. In this one, he’s letting other things get in the way and is doing stupid things because he’s all emotional over things that don’t connect to the case.
Secrets to the Grave is a dark and twisty mystery, filled with constant turns that you could never guess. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a hard-hitting murder mystery, but I wouldn’t recommend it for some of the odd things the characters do in this one. Hopefully, it’ll be different in the third book, which I do plan to check out.
Summary and Commentary
*** Please be aware this section will have spoilers***
The book starts in 1986. We get a description of a woman being dead on the floor, and a desperate 911 call from a little girl claiming her mommy was hurt by her daddy. Next, Vince and Mendez are on the scene and it’s a gruesome murder. Marissa Fordham had been found brutally and just disgustingly murdered on her floor. Her four-year-old daughter Haley made the 911 call and had been next to her mother. Haley had clearly been strangled and it seemed very lucky that she was alive. It’s clearly suspected that the killer also tried to kill Haley because she knew who they were and would be able to identify them. This is the first murder in a year, the first since Peter Crane the see no evil killer has been caught. With Peter’s upcoming trial, this new murder is not the publicity that Oak Knoll is looking for at the moment. Alexander Zahn Marissa’s next-door neighbour found the bodies when he hadn’t seen the little family in a few days and went to check on them. Alexander is an odd guy, most likely with OCD and a few other disorders. He’s extremely socially awkward and the detectives are definitely suspicious that he may have had something to do with the murder. I instantly knew he had nothing to do with it though because Alexander clearly doesn’t like to be touched, or touch others, and I can’t imagine him getting involved in a very bloody murder.
Next, we get a look at Anne who is visiting Dennis Farman in the mental hospital. In the first book, Dennis becomes obsessed with a dead body, tries to murder one of his classmates, and tries to make another eat the finger of a dead woman. He had a hard home life but is an extremely disturbed kid, that even the home life can’t totally explain. Dennis’s mother and father died in the first book so Anne is the only one who visits him. I am not sure why she visits him though because Dennis just seems to hate her. I mean I get why she does, because no one else will, but all I am saying is she’s a much nicer person than I would have been. Dennis is in the mental hospital because Anne convinced them that that would be more helpful for him than going to juvenile detention. It’s clear he hates it though and he also seems to be the only kid there which isn’t great because he’s often in isolation when Anne doesn’t visit him.
Still, at the scene of the crime, Sarah Morgan shows up. Sarah’s husband was cheating on her in the first book and was suspected of being the see-no-evil killer. Her daughter Wendy was also the kid whom Dennis tried to feed the dead finger. Marissa was an artist and apparently Sarah had come over so Marissa could give her some lessons. When Sarah finds out the news she is horrified as she had become close with Marissa and her daughter. Sarah isn’t able to provide much new info but does let them know that she was friends with her odd neighbour and didn’t seem afraid of him. When Vince and Mendez go back to talk to Alexander again that same day they learn that he killed his own mother. It’s a weird admittance, and I got the implication Tami was trying to make but it seemed weird to me. If he wasn’t in jail he was either never caught, or found to not be at fault so I wasn’t sure that this was actually all that significant especially given that he admitted it so openly. Vince doesn’t think that Alexander had to do anything with Marissa’s death. They can start to get connected to some friends and dates of Marissa’s and learn that she led an off lifestyle. She lived in a very grand home but was only an artist, she seems to have more money than she earns, so where is it coming from? One of her dates insinuates that it was family money, but also admits they knew nothing about her family. It turned out that no one connected to her knew anything about her family or the father of her daughter. It was odd that she seemed to live this very social but secretive life.
That night Vince gets a call to come to the hospital as Haley has woken up. Mendez tells him to bring Anne. Vince knows how good Anne is with kids, but also knows how wounded she is from her trauma. He doesn’t want her to have to get into a very traumatizing and emotional situation that would add more to her plate. Anne of course wants to go though and tends to care about everyone else but herself. When they get to the hospital they find Haley in a screaming frenzy and a woman named Milo Bordain who claimed to be a family friend begging for help. Anne can help Haley calm down but Milo seems bitter about it. Milo claims that Marissa and Haley were family to her and that she wanted to take Haley home with her as she’s like Haley’s grandmother. It’s clear the little girl is too traumatized though, and obviously isn’t as connected to this woman as she claims, so it’s clear she can’t take this girl home. It’s recommended that since Haley seems to like Anne she should go home with her and Vince. There is also a risk that with Haley’s survival in the news the killer may want to find her and finish the job so if she went with Anne and Vince she would be safer. Look I know it was 1986 but if this was today this would never happen. Two random people could not just take a child home with them. I mean fair their jobs mean they have to have clean backgrounds but yeah it wouldn’t be as easy as it’s presented in the book.
Haley is traumatized and can’t recall anything from what happened. She’s pretty young, and it’s unclear if she saw what was done to her mother so, yeah fair that her little brain decided to block that out. Vince and Mendez go to talk with Gina Kemmer who was Marissa’s best friend. It’s odd because Gina also doesn’t know anything about her supposed best friend, not where she’s from, her family, or the father of Haley. It’s all very odd and the detectives definitely have their suspicions up. They know she’s hiding something, whether it’s that she killed Marissa, or knows more about who did. Back at the hospital Haley is getting a little more chatty and keeps calling Anne and Vince Mommy and Daddy, but to be fair she oddly seems to call every man Daddy. I thought that was super strange and was a trauma or pain response from something she was going through. Haley can’t share much still about what happened but Anne isn’t pushing her, it’s clear she wants to hide from it so it’s not in Anne’s interest to force her to bring it up.
In the mail, Milo receives a package. It’s not just any package it’s a package containing Marissa’s severed breasts. Just so absolutely disturbing. I wondered why they would be sent to Milo though, and why not her best friend. It’s clear she was also close with Milo but it just didn’t make any sense to me at all. While talking to Milo it continues to become clear that Milo didn’t know Marissa as well as she wanted to think she did. It seemed she was a bit obsessive over Marissa and Haley and wanted them to feel a part of her family. It continues to be confusing as to why Milo would receive parts of Marissa’s body and the detectives wonder if it’s a warning to her. The guys meet Milo’s son who is a dashing politician and socialite. When they asked him if he knew Marissa it seemed he didn’t like her much, in his words they were just very different. He liked that she took his mother’s attention off of him though.
Turns out after doing some digging that Alexander had a very abusive mother. As a child, he snapped and stabbed her multiple times. Similarly to what happened to Marissa. It’s odd because the crimes seem different to me but I guess that Marissa was one of the only women Alexander liked so maybe she did something to upset him. He seems pretty broken up about her death though so I still really wasn’t convinced at all that it was him. They also find out that not long before her death Marissa had dinner with her attorney who just so happens to be Steve Morgan, Sarah Morgan’s husband. He was a suspect in the See No Evil Killer case and I got that they were trying to drag him into this one again but I didn’t get a feeling at all that he was involved in it. If anything the only thing they had to go off was this dinner and the fact that he was a written-off suspect once before. When they go to talk to Steve he isn’t home, but Sarah says he was out of town for work the night Marissa was killed, meaning it couldn’t be him. Sarah also asks Mendez if Wendy could maybe see Haley sometime as Wendy would play with her sometimes when her mother was taking lessons. Mendez who seems to have a little crush crush on Sarah says he sees what he can do. So it’s this crush that seems to start to get in the way of Mendez’s judgement, he hates Steve because he essentially wants to be him, and clearly can’t look at Steve objectively.
We get a look at Dennis in the mental hospital, and he’s pissed that Anne didn’t come to visit him because she was busy with Haley. He is pissed that she didn’t come but he also claims he’s happy because he hates her. Dennis is clearly just mentally really unwell and not able to regulate how he feels. He sneaks out of his room one night and waits till the nurses go on a smoke break. Then he steals a lighter, a newspaper, and other small things from the office. He plans to set some fires with the lighter and I was like oh great is this kid going to be able to break out? How insane is this, I hated it because really he needed to be locked up in a secure facility. We then get a POV from Gina the BFF. Seems like she’s been shot and thrown down a damn well. She’s still alive but is in a lot of pain and can’t move. I thought this part was a bit strange and wondered why it would be significant. I mean they could just say she died and move on so clearly this was going to show something.
The guys find out quickly that Gina has gone missing, and they aren’t sure if she skipped town, or was taken for knowing something. Mendez like goes over to Sarah’s place with the story of just checking in if she’s right. The whole thing is weird and inappropriate like she’s a married man. It might be to a terrible dude but that’s none of his business. Morgan ends up coming back home eventually and Mendez confronts him out of the driveway. He knows what he’s doing and antagonizes Steve so he will hit him, and then he can arrest him and complete exactly that. It was all just such an eye roll and if I thought he was doing it for Marissa’s murder it would be one thing but it was clearly not. He wanted to get him out of the picture so he would have a chance to slide in. It was just lame and I just wanted to get back to the mystery.
Turns out Marissa would sometimes be a date for men who were hiding their sexuality. Mark Foster was one. It turns out that there’s a rumour he was gay. Mark was a socialite as well and ran different music departments at the university. Mark denies being gay but that doesn’t convince the guys. Due to Marissa having all this unexplainable money, they start to think that maybe she was blackmailing Haley’s father or someone else she had dirt on. They hadn’t been able to locate Haley’s birth certificate yet and were going to have to order it from the hospital she was born at which is hard considering they don’t know where that is. Vince goes to Alexander again to try and see if he has a violent side. Vince says a bunch of shitty things to him and he obviously flies off the handle. Vince even acknowledges that he went too far which I at least appreciate. Alexander was going to freak no matter what, so I mean he did prove he could be violent, but that would mean Marissa would have had to have said or done something really bad to make him do that.
Mendez gets a call that Milo has been run off the road and got into an accident. She was alright and headed to the hospital. I wondered why the hell someone would have it out for this old rich lady, and a young mother. Unless they were just jealous that Milo funded Marissa’s life? Which I think I forgot to mention but yeah for whatever reason Milo played all her bills. All seemed weird to me. Milo can’t tell them much about what happened as it was raining hard and she wasn’t able to see well. She seems convinced thought that someone was trying to run her off the road. Sarah and Steve get into a fight over him getting arrested, and he says some really weird things about Marissa. Sarah kicks him out and tells him to never come back. I know that this was supposed to make him seem like the killer but I wasn’t going for it. At this point, I was more thinking of Milo’s son Darren as the killer.
Vince and Mendez get a warrant to search Gina’s house. They find that Gina knew Marissa a lot longer than she let on, and why the two would be hiding their past was up in the air. It’s clear with how long Gina has known Marissa she must know who the father of her Haley is and who her family is. It also seems like she lied about where she came from since she clearly grew up in the same area as Marissa. Turns out Marissa is actually Melissa Fabriano and is hiding her real identity for some reason. Maybe to hide from someone? They also find a photo that’s labelled just a few months before Haley would have been born. It’s clear in the photo that Marissa is not pregnant. I didn’t see this one coming, Haley not really being her kid, but if she’s not Marissa’s whose kid is she? Milo shows up randomly at Anne and Vince’s house in the hopes of seeing Haley. It’s clear that Haley doesn’t connect well with her but Milo clearly cares for her. Anne doesn’t like Milo and her persistence to have Haley but she wants to keep the piece. Milo told Haley that she took the cats from their home back to hers to take care of them, and if Haley wanted to see them she could come by any time. Haley begs Anne to go, and Anne lets her know that she will think about it. Gina ends up getting found half dead. She was able to work her way up the well even with all her injuries. She had to make sure to tell the police who killed Marissa, and who tried to kill her, it was her motivation.
Dennis is pissed at Anne for not being present anymore and decides it is time to enact his revenge. He wants to get out of the hospital so he can murder her, so he uses the lighter he stole to start some trouble. Setting different waste bins on fire, and placing a few oxygen tanks near the growing flames, Dennis waited in his room for the fun to start. When the screams started he made his way out the building, and no one noticed a thing. Dennis’s fire ended up killing one person, and when he found out his excitement was disturbing. It gives him more confidence that he can kill Anne. Vince goes looking for Alexander who went missing after Vince pushed him too hard. Vince gets a strike of inspiration and thinks that he knows where he’s hiding. He finds Alexander and he tries to attack Vince. Vince can’t get him to calm down, and eventually, Alexander tries to kill himself and is successful. He stabs himself which is a terrible way to commit suicide, but it also shows how much his trauma from the past affects him. I don’t exactly think Vince should feel guilty because it’s clear the man was very unwell, but he shouldn’t feel great. I felt like this happened to almost make it seem like he was guilty over something, presumably killing Marissa but I didn’t believe this.
Dennis goes to Anne’s old home, the one she lived in with her father, not realizing that she was now married and moved out. Anne’s father, who we learned in the first book is a terrible ass who hates his daughter, and just gives her address away to Dennis with no questions asked. I honestly hated this because I was really hoping Dennis wouldn’t get to her, not with Haley in the house. Dennis of course makes his way over, and with an old knife he’s found attacks Anne. Thankfully Anne had also been watching Wendy at the time Dennis attacked her, and Wendy was able to sneak up on him with a fireplace tool and get him over the head. Wendy knew how dangerous he was and if she didn’t stop him he would kill Anne. He got a few good stabs on Anne but nothing life-threatening. Haley was safe but was shaken up along with Wendy. Vince and Mendez acknowledge that if Wendy wasn’t there things would have been a lot worse and I agree, although an 11-year-old girl shouldn’t have to do that to someone to protect another. If I am being honest, with what comes up soon after this part in the book I felt like it was unnecessary. I wasn’t sure why this needed to be in the book unless Dennis needed to be painted in an even worse light than before for the third book. But this time the kids going to juvie so I am not sure how he will break out of there.
Through some digging, it turns out that that guy Mark Foster may have been in a gay relationship with Darren Bordain and that is why both don’t have alibi’s. If they did they would have to admit they were together. The time frame of this book being the 80s means that LGBTQ life isn’t accepted yet, and both men would rather be thought of as murder rather than gay. I wondered if maybe Marissa was doing some blackmailing on these guys to keep their secret and that’s why she was killed. The problem with this though is Haley’s birth certificate has been found, and Darren is named on the certificate as her father. So maybe he was bi and being blackmailed so he wouldn’t lose his political standard for having different sexual tastes, but also having an illegitimate child? Idk I was kind of getting annoyed at this point and just wanted to know who the killer was. Darren does drop some info though and presses that he isn’t the only one with his name, he carries his fathers. This made a bit more sense to me at least because I was starting to get the vibe it definitely wasn’t Darren who did it.
They start to think that Marissa may have been blackmailing Milo and her husband Bruce (who goes by his middle name) and eventually someone starts to get tired. Some of the pieces started to come together for me here but I believed it was Brue more than Milo who must have killed her since Milo got her breasts in the mail. Gina finally wakes up from the hospital and tells the guys that it was Mark who tried to kill her. I thought this was weird because I didn’t think he had anything to do with Marissa’s death at all so why would he want to kill Marissa? The guys seem to think that Mark killed Gina because she tried to use her friend’s tactics and blackmail him. Wanting to get out of town with Marissa now being dead she may have threatened to expose Darren and Mark if they didn’t hand over some cash. This made sense to me because I wasn’t sure why else he would have tried to get rid of her. It’s a sad ass reason to try to kill someone though. Turns out that is the exact case, and why Mark tried to kill her. She does think that Bruce killed Marissa though and makes sure to tell the guys that.
Anne, a bit healed up but still sore from Dennis’s attack feels like she needs to get Haley out of the house. Ever since the attack she had been acting out a lot, seemingly because Anne’s attack probably reminded her of her mothers and brought up some of those memories her brain was trying to black out. Anne decides to take Haley to Milo’s to see her cats so that maybe she will chill out a bit. I felt bad for Anne she needed to be resting, not worrying about this also a very traumatized child. Anne and Haley head out to Milo’s. Milo is cold and not the nicest to Anne but Haley is happy to see the cats to Anne keeps it civil. Mendez decides to go check out the mail-curious place that’s in a different town, that mailed off Marissa’s breasts. He brings some photos with him to see if any of the workers recognize some of the suspects. Turns out it was freaking Milo who sent the box… so this older woman brutally killed Marissa, and then tried to kill her child, cut off Marissa’s breasts and sent them to herself all for what? If Haley is her husband’s child that’s some pretty messed up revenge. I felt like I should have known it was Milo earlier, it was so glaringly obvious once you knew it was her. I just didn’t want to believe it though because it seemed too weird. I am glad that she didn’t get Haley though because chances are she would have tried to kill her or again or I don’t know what just tried to continue to make sure she kept all she remembered down.
Gina tells Vince that Haley was not Bruce’s daughter, but that he thought he was. Haley wasn’t anyone’s. Marissa had kidnapped her after she had a one-night stand with Bruce. Finding out how wealthy he was she wanted a cut and decided a fake child between them would be the way to do it. Clearly, Milo and Bruce found out that she was lying and decided they no longer wanted to fund her life and her lie. Bruce apparently had nothing to do with it though, it was all Milo which I honestly am not really certain about. I didn’t love that at the last minute the main thing about Marissa which was that she was a loving mother, was skewed. I mean it made sense for the mystery but did she have to be a kidnapper who took advantage of a young girl on drugs? Like could Haley have just been fathered by another man? I mean it added to the drama so I got it.
As we know Haley and Anne are out on Milo’s property. Haley with all her new memories remembers that it was Milo who attacked them. Vince, knowing where Anne and Haley went that day rushes to save them. Poor Anne for the third time in two books gets brutally attacked for just protecting a child. Wild as hell. Leave Anne alone in the third book this girl needs a long rest. Anne can escape Milo with Haley but not without a few injuries. The day was saved by the guys who took Milo down before she got Anne and Haley. It wasn’t my favourite ending but it wasn’t the worst. I just wish Anne didn’t have to be involved. The book ends sweetly with Anne and Vince adopting Haley. I considered Haley to be kidnapped because Marissa convinced this poor teenage girl living on the streets to give her baby to her. The girl got nothing in exchange and wasn’t in the right mind to make a big decision like that, but Marissa took advantage. I honestly felt like her birth mother should have gotten to claim her if she wanted to, it didn’t even seem like that was an option. I am glad Vince and Anne adopted her though, it’s clear they care for her.
I hope you enjoyed this review! Has anyone else checked out this series before? What did you think? Feel free to follow me on my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I drop a new review!
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