Title: The Secret Room
Author: Sandra Block
Series: Zoe Goldman, #3
Narrator: Jennifer Nittoso
Published: April 2017, Hachette Audio
Length: 9 hours 2 minutes
Source: Publisher
Summary:
Her patients are dying.
Some are apparent suicides and others possible accidents, but rumors are
flying that Dr. Zoe Goldman is an angel of death-intentionally helping
hopeless cases go to a “better place”-or, worse yet, a dangerously
incompetent doctor.
As a new psychiatry fellow at the local
correctional facility, Zoe is still learning the ropes while watching
her back to avoid some dangerous prisoners. As the deaths mount up, Zoe
is wracked with horror and guilt, feverishly trying to figure out what
is going wrong and even questioning her own sanity.
What Zoe
doesn’t realize is that someone is targeting her patients to get to her.
Someone who has access to her deepest secrets and fears. Someone who
will stop at nothing to take everything Zoe has, even her life.
My thoughts: This is the third book in Sandra Block’s Zoe Goldman’s series and I really enjoy this series. It’s such a good combination of character study and psychological/medical thriller that really gets under your skin and pulls you in.
As you know I’m a stickler when it comes to reading books in a series in order…it just makes sense and often times later books in the series often times contain spoilers to the earlier books. That is definitely the case here, so I highly suggest reading these books in order. Plus, you really get the character development that is such a big part of this series as it is meant to be – without learning anything out of order.
This is the type of book that sneaks up on you. Nothing is as it seems and there are many layers at play here as the mysteries twist and turn, the suspense ratchets up and the tension builds. There are metaphors at play here – both in relation to the “room” as well as to our minds and it very cleverly plays with you as you are devouring this story – and I mean that in the best of ways…once you start this book, you will be hard-pressed to put it down!
This is a creepy, dark story that at times is told by an unknown person – and to me, these parts really kept me on my toes. I was all over the place trying to figure out who this voice was. And then there were the dying patients’ of Zoe…was it her and she was so out of it that she just didn’t realize she was misjudging things, or was someone out to get her, framing her with these deaths? I really was all over the place with my thinking on this…and I love that! I love when I can’t quite put my finger on where things are heading.
This mystery really kept me thinking the whole time…and it’s not that often I come across a book that does that. Usually I am able to figure some parts out, but not here. This is such a thought-provoking, at times anxiety-inducing book and I really hope it’s not the last we’ve seen of Zoe!
Audio thoughts: I was so happy to see that Jennifer Nittoso was narrating this book. She narrated the previous one in this series and I thought she had done a great job. She really brings Zoe to life and was consistent in her voices this time around. Her pacing and tone were spot on and I enjoyed her narration. I really hope if there is another book in this series, that she narrates it!
Books in this series:
- Little Black Lies
- The Girl Without a Name
- The Secret Room
