The Secretary; Renee Knight

TITLE: The Secretary
AUTHOR:  Renee Knight

PUBLISHER:  Harper

PUB. YEAR: 2019

SETTING:  UK
FORMAT:  - ARC (288pp)

RATING - 4/5

This book had been on my radar for a few months and, it turned out to be a story that was much different from what I was expecting.

Christina Butcher is the personal assistant and "the Secretary" to Mina Appleton, a woman who controls a large supermarket chain.  Christina's family was struggling financially, and she felt that this job would help her husband and daughter longterm.  She was offered a significant salary and she's grateful for the opportunity to work for Mina.

Mina more or less inherits her position from her father, a man who was well respected by all his customers and the other business associates he dealt with over the years. Mina, promises to follow in her father's footsteps, but she is nothing like him.  In fact Mina comes across as a power hungry, pathological liar and someone who will stop at nothing when it comes to retaining power, control and making money and, that means expecting Christina to carry out her orders. Soon, however, Mina just may get what she well deserves or will she?

Part psychological thriller, part courtroom drama, this story was quite a surprise - much darker than I was expecting. I liked the Christina character to a certain degree,  even though she sacrifices everything. She knows all of Mina's secrets, indiscretions and all about her unethical business practices. Christina's a quiet observer with a good memory as well. She quietly went about her business.  I didn't care for the Mina character but, she was, for the most part, a believable character.

Although this story was slow at times, the ending was very unexpected and helped me to bump up my overall rating a bit. I felt that there is plenty to discuss for bookclubs here.