Book Summary and Reviews of Jenny Cooper Has a Secret by Joy Fielding

Jenny Cooper Has a Secret by Joy Fielding

Jenny Cooper Has a Secret

A Novel

by Joy Fielding

  • Critics' Consensus (2):
  • Published:
  • Aug 2025, 352 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

In this riveting psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of All the Wrong Places, a dementia patient reveals a deadly secret—and one woman must decide whether to believe her.

Reeling from her husband's death and best friend's dementia diagnosis, seventy-six-year-old Linda Davidson feels lost and alone. Her beloved daughter Kleo and son-in-law Mick have moved into her house to keep her company, but the constant bickering quickly turns their presence into yet another worry on Linda's long list.

Eager to escape the tension at home, Linda goes to visit her friend at Legacy Place, a memory care facility for the elderly, where she meets Jenny Cooper, a ninety-two-year-old dementia patient who makes a shocking confession: she kills people.

Linda dismisses the so-called secret as the confusion of an ailing mind, but Jenny seems strangely lucid during their visits as she recounts stories of her many victims—mostly men who hurt her. Then a fellow patient at Legacy Place dies. Everyone else sees it as the natural death of an sick old man, but Linda can't help but wonder: is there any chance Jenny's telling the truth?

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"[Joy] Fielding's excellent latest nestles a murder mystery inside a witty novel of friendship and loss...Punchy, surprising, and sweet in equal measure, this tale of twisted sisterhood is a home run." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This clever cat-and mouse game keeps readers guessing until the end about who is taking advantage of whom." —Library Journal

This information about Jenny Cooper Has a Secret was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Joy Fielding Author Biography

Joy Fielding is the New York Times bestselling author of Someone Is Watching, Now You See Her, Still Life, Mad River Road, See Jane Run, and other acclaimed novels. She divides her time between Toronto and Palm Beach, Florida.

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Read-Alikes

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