Secrets and Lies

Copyright 2012
Joanne Clancy. All rights reserved.

Kindle Edition

This book is also available in paperback at Amazon.

Discover books by Joanne Clancy:

Unforgettable Embrace

The Wedding Day

My Love

The Secrets & Lies Trilogy
:

Secrets & Lies, Book 1

Aftermath, Book 2

Redemption, Book 3

The Unfaithful Series
:

Unfaithfully Yours, Book 1

Revenge, Book 2

Web of Deceit, Book 3

Click here to purchase Joanne Clancy’s books

Praise for Secrets and Lies

Secrets & Lies was a wonderful story. It kept building momentum as the stories of Kerry's and Hope's lives unfolded. The author described the characters in vivid detail and you felt as though you knew them by the end of the novel. There are also hints as to their lives possibly intersecting in the following sequels which promise to be very interesting considering the cliffhanger of an ending! I feel compelled to read Aftermath to see exactly what lies ahead for these characters...

~ Michele H ~ Amazon

Having read a few previous books by this author, which I'd also enjoyed. I have to say that Joanne Clancy just gets better and better every time and as a result this is a polished and well thought-out, intriguing story. It follows the lives of a couple of female main characters. Kerry who's married to Conor and Hope who's married to Niall and it sure makes you wonder how these two, very different ladies are connected and I don't want to spoil anything, but could it be their husbands?

The sex scenes were handled really well as I've come to expect, for Joanne Clancy has a knack of making them downright sexy without being 'cringey' which is a major skill in itself. I got stuck into this novel right from the start and raced to finish it, seeing as I was carried away on a simple basis of wanting to find out what happens next. In fact, it's such a page-turner that I nearly missed my doctor
’s appointment when they'd called out my name, but I was so engrossed in reading it that I didn't hear them until the nurse tapped me on the shoulder and I nearly dropped my Kindle. I can't wait for the second book in this trilogy to be produced and if you read it too then you'll understand, wh
y
!
~ Maureen Reil ~ Amazon

Kerry Darcy is not just "settled" - she is blissfully settled. She has two children, plenty of disposable income and a thriving career as an author to keep her busy while the love of her life, her husband, Conor, is off on business trip after business trip, only able to stay h
ome for short periods of time.

It appears, then, that she would have little in common with young, bubbly Hope Kennedy who is a childless, aspiring actress. But, Hope understands the loneliness Kerry feels because her husband, Niall, is also only able to stay home for short periods of time while he takes busi
ness trip after business trip.

Fortunately, in March of 2011 the Darcys finally manage time for a family vacation on the fascinating island of Japan. On March 11, Conor goes off for a little sightseeing when an undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Tohoku. From the moment the size of the 9.0 earthquake was recognized, it took Japan only three minutes to issue a tsunami warning. However it took only 29 minutes for the first waves to reach Japan. Ultimately, over 15,000 were killed, with several thousand more injured. As Kerry and her daughter, Saoirse, fight frantically to escape their crashing hotel, fear mounts as Hope Kennedy cannot reach her husband, who coincidentally is in Japan
for yet another business trip.

As an avid reader, even though this book was superbly written, I actually found the plot a little predictable. However, the characters were so well-crafted that I felt drawn into their lives - their families. Author Joanne Clancy did a superb job of making me care what happened to these women and I anxiously await the second book to discover if Kerry and Saoirse are all right. Even more, I am impatient to discover how Connor and Niall have fared. This is one book where you'll be eager to get your hands on the sequel!
~ M. Walker ~ Amazon

Kerry Darcy's life, as she kn
ew it, ended just before three o’ clock on Friday, the eleventh of March 2011.

The Great East Japan earthquake was one of the most powerful earth
quakes that the modern world had ever known. The earthquake battered coastal communities with waves of up to forty metres tall. It triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the Japanese coast and the aftershock could be felt as far away as Russia, the west coast of America and even in the Antarctic where the tsunami destroyed icebergs that were the same size as Manhattan Island.

It killed more than fifteen thousand people and injured over twenty six thousand. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history and was the fifth
largest earthquake ever measured, causing the entire planet to shift on its axis by up to twenty five centimetres. The energy released on the earth's surface was equivalent to more than one thousand five hundred times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

Saoirse Darcy, a young student, had studied tsunamis in geography at s
chool and recognised the telltale signs of the receding ocean and frothing bubbles. She warned the others on the beach about the impending killer wave and they were evacuated to safety just in time, before the tsunami struck its deadly blow, wreaking havoc on so many unsuspecting lives.

Giant forces that had been building up deep in the Earth for hundreds of years were explo
sively released on that fateful day in March, shaking the ground violently and unleashing a series of killer waves that raced across the Pacific Ocean at the speed of a jet airliner. Hours later, deadly waves radiating from the earthquake zone slammed into the coastline of Pacific countries; snatching people out to sea, drowning others in their homes or on beaches, and demolishing property from Japan to America and beyond.

Along a stretch of coastline equivalent to the distance from London to Edinburgh, a tower of water reaching up to twelve metres tall burst over reinforced sea barriers, destroying sixteen towns and ninety-five thousand buildings. It travelled six miles inland, in some areas, before dragging millions of homes, possessions and vehicles back into the open sea.

The earthquake had the largest duration of faulting ever observed, lasting between eight and ten minutes; the most devastating minutes of Kerry Darcy's life. Kerry could hear the screaming and crying of the people all around her. Everyone was clinging to whatever piece of debris they could find, watching the waves spread out in vast tentacles as it reached further and further in all directions.

The killer wave had taken its fateful hold on time and place. It had ruptured the present, warped the future, replaced order with confusion, confidence with trepidation and control with powerlessness. Lives were ended for some, changed forever for others and a most significant chain of events was about to unfold with catastrophic results.

“You are the most wonderful husband in the whole wide world and I love you so much!” Kerry Darcy flung her arms around Conor, her husband of twenty years and almost sent everything on their restaurant table flying to the floor in her eagerness to hug him.

“Steady on sweetheart, the manager will have us removed for causing such a commotion,” Conor laughed.

“I don't care,” she said. “I'm so very happy right now and I don't care who knows it. I love you.” She planted a big kiss on his lips and gazed lov
ingly into his intelligent blue eyes.

“I love you too, darling,” Conor laughed again and hugged her tightly in return. “Everyone's staring at us,” he whispered eventually.

Kerry reluctantly disentangled herself from her husband's muscular arms and glanced around the packed restaurant. It was eight o' clock on Saturday evening, the busiest night of the week, and quite a few people were staring in amusement at them. It seemed they'd caused quite a scene. Kerry smiled in embarrassment and hastily retreated to her seat where she tried to regain her composure.

“I can't believe you've planned such an amazing surprise and I didn't have a clue what were you up to all this time! It must have taken you months to organise the trip.”

“I can be mysterious when necessary,” her husband teased, arching an eyebrow. “You might know me better than most people, but I can keep a secret when necessary.”

“Can you r
eally?” Kerry looked quizzically at him. “What could be more surprising than the holiday of a lifetime to Japan? I've always wanted to go there. It's been a lifelong dream of mine and you're going to make it come true.”

“You can call me Mr. Drea
m Maker,” Conor grinned at her as he refilled their wine glasses. “I'm being a touch selfish too, you know. I booked the holiday as much for myself as for you.”

“Oh, that's right!” Kerry exclaimed. “It'll be your forty
- fifth birthday on March twenty first.”

“Exactly,” Conor winked at her. “I wanted to do something special and we've opened a new hotel in Tohoku so I got us great rates
for a few nights.”

“What about the children?” Kerry asked, a flicker of worry suddenly passing across her pretty face. Kerry was forty two years old with dark auburn hair which fell in soft waves around her heart-shaped face. Her eyes were sky-blue and her lips, even without lipstick, were a full rosebud red. Her looks were almost perfect apart from her slightly crooked nose, a result of having fallen downstairs as a young child and breaking it rather dramatically. She still shuddered at the memory of the gushing blood and how badly her nose had swollen.

She had a petite figure which she kept trim and toned by running five miles every day and she stood just five feet one inch tall, that one inch was very important to her. She possessed a deep, throaty voice and an even raspier, filthy laugh which is what Conor claimed made him fall in love with her all those years ago.

“Darling, our children are old enough to take care of themselves for a few weeks, don't you think? Emer is nineteen and Saoirse is almost thirteen.”

“I know their ages, darling,” Kerry replied disparagingly. “I just worry about them, that's all. It's the first time we'll both be away from them for such a long period of time. Three whole weeks is quite a while for them to be home alone.”

“They won't be alone, darling. Your sister has promised to keep an eye on them while we're gone and she only lives next door! Saoirse practically lives with her Auntie Maura most of the time anyway; whenever she's off school she's over at Maura's house and we hardly ever see Emer since she started college. They adore each other and anyway, Emer has grown into a very capable, responsible young woman. She's told me that she'll take good care of Soairse, not that Saoirse is difficult in any way. I trust them both implicitly, they'll be absolutely fine.”

“Are you sure?” Kerry sounded doubtful.

“I'm absolutely positive and anyway we can take them with us if you’d prefer.
Now I would like to make a toast to my gorgeous wife, who I must say is looking particularly ravishing tonight.”

Kerry blushed
at her husband's compliment as he raised his glass in a toast to her.

“How did I get so lucky?” she whispered, reaching across the table for his hand.