Book Review: Secrets, Lies and Betrayals

Reviewed by Erin Britton

A prescient political thriller that neatly balances the human element of tragedy and intrigue

A globe-trotting, tense, and twist-laden political thriller, Lynn Wood’s Secrets, Lies and Betrayals is so cannily contemporary that it could almost be “ripped from the headlines” stuff. 

Triggered by the fracturing of the fragile hope of peace in the Middle East and then ramped up by a particularly contentious US presidential election, the story whizzes along at breakneck speed as heroes and villains collide and regular folks duck and hope for the best.

Still, the story begins on a deceptively hopeful note “as the often fitful, stumbling, one-step forward, two-steps back process towards a meaningful peace was negotiated, arm-twisted, backtracked, sidestepped until finally an agreement was reached both sides could live with and their respective governments reluctantly assented to.” The architect of the promised peace, Senator Mac McMillan, is in Tel Aviv to witness the signing of the historic treaty by the presidents of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. It is an auspicious but not uncontentious occasion. 

One person is certainly enjoying the event though: the Senator’s three-year-old granddaughter, Lea, who manages to escape her mother and run toward her grandfather just as the signing ceremony is about to begin. But in stepping forward and sweeping up his granddaughter, he makes a tragic mistake.

“The blast of a single, unsilenced shot rang out, shattering that hope in a bloody, calculated instant.” The bullet finds its target, Senator McMillan, but only after encountering an unintended victim along the way. “A single bullet struck his young granddaughter, passed through her soft flesh and tissue, before entering his strong   heart, killing him instantly.” If there is any luck to be found that day, it lies in the fact that Maxwell Cole, former soldier and current diplomatic security officer, is there to whisk the severely injured Lea away in a Medevac chopper.

And he actually ends up doing far more than that. While Lea survives the assassin’s bullet, she becomes the target of something far worse: fanaticism. This danger follows her wherever she goes, leading to her being hidden away at a European boarding school. As eighteen-year-old Lea describes it, “Hate couldn’t even claim its full measure of triumph, because I survived, and in doing so, became a symbol of American privilege and arrogance, constantly interfering in worlds beyond its concern.” Luckily, Max is there to help, guide, and protect her has she grows up.

What’s more, when Lea decides to attend college in Paris, which has the dual advantages of helping her avoid the inevitable media circus in the US and allowing her to steer clear of her father’s political ambitions and his new family, she asks Max to accompany her. “It seems like a place a girl can get lost in…or remain lost, in my case.” After Max secures them a grand residence in the Sixteenth Arrondissement, he persuades Lea that she needs to enjoy life and freedom as an eighteen year old, which leads to a three-month pre-college holiday in Rome.

More importantly, it’s in Rome that Lea discovers a love of art and begins to think that she might have finally found her purpose in life. Her college career passes quickly and Lea finds success in Rome, both professionally and personally. Her talent as a sculptor is recognized and her work is represented by the prestigious Barone Gallery. She also finds romance with the handsome and very rich Conte Gabriel Lazio. Things are going suspiciously well, in fact, until politics intervenes once again. A shady cabal of “the wealthiest, most influential names in the country” are looking to buy the next US presidential election and Lea’s father is their candidate of choice. 

When the media frenzy surrounding his campaign turns to the issue of his elusive daughter (“The more frantic the Senator’s pleas for his daughter’s privacy, the more inflamed the search for any information surrounding Michaela became”), Lea’s carefully crafted new life comes crashing down around her. As the threats and danger mount from all sides, Lea has to rely on Max to keep her safe and track down the person who leaked her new identity before any more damage can be done.

Secrets, Lies and Betrayals is an alarmingly realistic thriller based on both contemporary topics and deep-seated conspiracy theories. From the conflict in the Middle East to the media frenzy to the deep state and MAGA activism, Lynn Wood bases her worldbuilding on real world events and actual beliefs, but she turns the dial up to eleven by adding in plenty of action and suspense. This is a twisty thriller where almost all the main characters are keeping secrets and where the importance is both personal and global.

Time passes quite unusually in the novel. The assassination of Senator McMillan and   the near death of Lea take place in the prologue, and then the main body of the novel begins with an eighteen-year-old Lea planning her future in Paris. From there, the years of her college education and her subsequent time in Rome pass rapidly, with just certain highlights from the periods in question mentioned. These time jumps can sometimes prove a bit disorientating, but they’re necessary to lay the groundwork for the various crosses and double-crosses and to move the story to where it needs to be, particularly concerning long-term plot points like Senator Manning’s political career.

Secrets, Lies and Betrayals offers something of a whistlestop tour of major European cities—Paris, Rome, and Vienna—which adds pace to the story and additional points of interest. But the particular focus is on the locations where the characters interact (in houses, at parties, sometimes out on the street) rather than on the wider environment. This approach highlights the details of the characters’ lives and helps with imagining their world rather than seeing it in detail.

This focus on the characters’ more domestic environment is indicative of just how good the characterization in the novel is. Wood really excels in this regard, bringing together a cast of characters who remain understandable and relatable even when they’re embroiled in quite shocking events. The “goodies” are realistic, with all the flaws, quandaries, and inconsistencies to be expected of people doing their best while living through interesting times, and the “baddies” are delightfully conniving and nefarious. Plus, Wood does such a great job of fostering suspicion and doubt regarding how far the conspiracies stretch that some neutral characters are initially marked out as duplicitous.

Maxwell Cole is notionally the main character and he’s a true action hero. Following the assassination of Senator McMillan, he set up a company that “offered state of the art technology to protect priceless possessions and properties, but specialized in providing experienced, expert teams of professionals affording personal protection to those in need of it.” More importantly, he stayed in Lea’s life as a consistent father figure, always seeking to balance protecting her with ensuring she could build a life. He clearly has some mad military skills—and a surprising talent for securing real estate—which are certainly called on as the story progresses. Also, unlike most action heroes, Wood gives him a convincing personal life outside of his job, perhaps a surprising one even.

However, for all of Max’s vital input, the real main character is arguably Lea, who matures throughout the novel from being an uncertain and sometimes brattish teenager to being a decisive, brave, and bold young woman. From surviving the assassination of her grandfather onwards, she has been saddled with a difficult life, which has left her somewhat aloof and resigned, but with great insight into people and her relationships with them. For example,  after focusing on explaining her college plans, “Suddenly, she realized how foolish she was to believe she was still the center of her father’s life. He had a new wife, a new life and now a new, long-awaited son on the way.”

In many ways, Lea serves as an everywoman character, demonstrating what it would be like to be caught up in something way beyond your control, with no possibility of escape or living a normal life. Still, she has more grit than many and ultimately doesn’t shy away from tackling the conspiracy she is wrapped up in head-on. 

The relationship between Lea and Gabriel adds another dimension to both her character and the overall plot. The romance is worked into the story well, and Gabriel—who certainly has his own share of family dramas—has an engaging personality, bringing humor and support to the situation Lea finds herself in. 

Secrets, Lies and Betrayals is relayed from the perspectives of various characters, most notably Lea but also Max, Gabriel, Lea’s grandmother, a major villain, etc., providing in-depth insight into their thoughts and motivations. In this way, the violence and conspiratorial revelations seem to unfold in real time, adding tension and uncertainty to the story and ensuring that a fast pace is maintained throughout. As the first book in a series centered on Maxwell Cole, it’s exciting to imagine what Wood will have in store for him next.

Thank you for reading Erin Britton’s book review of Secrets, Lies and Betrayals by Lynn Wood! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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