Lists

Psst: 40 Books About Family Secrets

María Cristina García lives in New York with her favorite spouse, her favorite toddler, her favorite cat, and her second-favorite cat. When not ranking members of her household, she's catching up on Supergirl, strumming her mandolin, or trying to beat the clock on her library loans. Twitter: @MeowyCristina Blog: MeowyCristina.com

This Riot Recommendation asking for the best books about family secrets is sponsored by Poisoned Pen Press, bringing you Fogland Point by Doug Burgess.

David Hazard wanted nothing more than to forget his renegade family and the foggy New England village “on the wrong side” of Narragansett Bay where he grew up. When sudden tragedy brings him back to Little Compton to care for his grandmother during her struggle with dementia, he discovers her fragile memories may hold the key to a bizarre mystery half a century old—and perhaps to the sudden and brutal murder right next door.


A good story has conflict, right? And what’s more conflict-inducing than a family secret that just can’t be kept any longer? So we asked you to give us your picks for books worth reading because of the family secrets they revolve around. And here is but a smattering of what you divulged.

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

The Book of Lost and Found by Lucy Foley

The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown

Tomorrow by Graham Swift

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

The Guestbook by Andrea Hurst

When I’m Gone by Emily Bleeker

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

Coming to Rosemont by Barbara Hinske

Broken Pieces by Kathleen Long

The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

A Family Affair by Mary Campisi

The Good Goodbye by Carla Buckley

Blood’s Echo by Isabella Maldonado

Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani

Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave

The House by the Lake by Ella Carey

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams

The Pleasing Hour by Lily King

Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown

Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout

The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas

Letters from Paris by Juliet Blackwell

The House Swap by Rebecca Fleet

Chance Harbor by Holly Robinson

Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller

Miller’s Valley by Anna Quindlen

Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan

What You Don’t Know by Joann Chaney

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

Family Tree by Susan Wiggs

The Wilding Sisters by Eve Chase

The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter

Reunion by Hannah Pittard

Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale

The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir

Leeway Cottage by Beth Gutcheon