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Secret Smile
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Plot Summary of Secret Smile
"

Warner, June 2004, 24.00, 308 pp.
ISBN 0446533475

Miranda is the pretty self-confident one that most people envy because she has her life together dating whom she wants and working at a job she loves. At a party she meets Brendan Brock and they go out together eight times before she decides to end it because there is something about him that makes her uneasy. One night she comes home to find him in her room reading her diary; she ends their relationship right then.

A few weeks, Miranda's sister Kerry asks her to meet her for lunch. At the restaurant Kerry tells Miranda that she is in love. Brendan enters and tells her they are a couple and not to be angry with him because he broke up with Miranda. She lets the conversation slide and the next thing she knows the two of them are moving into her apartment until they could find one of their own. Miranda realizes that Brendan is obsessed with hurting her because she dumped him but even she doesn't know that he will turn her whole family into believing she is crazy person. Or that he will kill those she loves and nobody will believe her.

SECRET SMILE is the story of a sociopath who insinuates himself into the life of a fairly happy family and destroys them because one of the members rejected him.   Nicci French is brilliant at creating characters one loves to hate and pity but she also excels at telling a story that is frightening in its normalcy, a key theme for a fantastic work of psychological suspense.

Harriet Klausner
"

Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of Secret Smile
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 50%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%




Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
Time/era of story: - present (2000-2010)
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Crime Thriller Yes
General Crime (including known murderer) Yes
Who's the criminal enemy here? - hunted by BAD vigilante getting revenge
If story PRIMARILY about main chr. being hunted... - hunted by dangerous boy/girlfriend/spouse

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - artist
Age: - 20's-30's
How much violence does he/she use? - none
Ethnicity/Race - British
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status: - criminal
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - an average amount
Motive of antagonist - revenge
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK

Style
Person - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths? - 2
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript
Most similar books to Secret Smile
I'll Be Watching You by Andrea Kane
Midnight Rain by Holly Lisle
Total Silence by T.J. MacGregor
Closed at Dusk by Monica Dickens
Promise Him Everything by Carla Cassidy


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Nicci French Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Sherrie L. Jones  

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