The Secret Room
Published on 26. February 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
432 pages
978-0-00-870229-8 (ISBN)
Description
*The #1 Irish bestseller*
The latest gripping new thriller featuring DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent from the Top Ten Sunday Times bestselling author
'The most dangerously addictive series in crime fiction' ERIN KELLY
'Oh. My. God.' RUTH WARE
'I LOVE it - it is completely MAGNIFICENT' MARIAN KEYES
'Utterly brilliant' LIZ NUGENT
'Sublime' ANDREA MARA
'An old-fashioned locked room mystery wrapped in a deeply moving love story' MAIL ONLINE
A closed door.
An impossible murder.
2:32 p.m. Wealthy, privileged Ilaria Cavendish checks into a luxury London hotel and orders a bottle of champagne. Within the hour, her lover discovers her submerged in a bath of scalding water, dead.
At first glance it looks like an accident. No one went in with her. No one came out. But all the signs point to murder.
For DS Maeve Kerrigan, the case is a welcome distraction. But when shock news hits close to home, affecting her partner, DI Josh Derwent, she faces the toughest challenge of her career. And if she fails her world will never be the same again...
Praise for Jane Casey
'With every breath in my body, I'm BEGGING you to read Jane Casey's books!' Marian Keyes
'The ultimate just-one-more-chapter read. Come for the thrill of a historic disappearance case, and get obsessed by the sexiest will-they-won't-they in crime fiction' Abigail Dean
'Jane Casey is simply one of the best writers of detective fiction today. There aren't enough superlatives. I'm in awe. I utterly loved it' Liz Nugent
'A twisting, seductive, sensational thriller. Tense, heartfelt and hugely gripping, A Stranger in the Family is Jane Casey at her phenomenal best' Chris Whitaker
'Nobody plots better than Jane Casey...the twist in the end was as surprising as it was satisfying' Stig Abell
'A Stranger in the Family blew my mind. 2024 has barely started and this is already one of my books of the year' Jo Spain
'As tense as piano wire, intricately plotted, endlessly intriguing and all underpinned by a simmering "will they, won't they" narrative. Just terrific' Neil Lancaster
'The undisputed queen of simmering tension. Explosively good' Sarah Hilary
'A wonderfully clever plot, surprises at every turn...one of the very best authors writing today' Andrea Mara
'Stellar stuff: funny, sexy, and a character and a case that will break your heart' Jo Callaghan
'This book hit the ground running and didn't let up' Sam Holland
'Her best yet, gripping and twisty but also moving and with a slow-burn sizzle that would put romance writers to shame' Claire McGowan
The Secret Room was a #1 Irish bestseller on Sunday 4th May 2025
READERS LOVE THE SECRET ROOM...
'Flawless writing, flawless plotting and flawless characterisation. I'm utterly addicted to this series!' ?????
'Definitely 5*' ?????
'You will not be disappointed!' ?????
'So compelling and tense right to the end' ?????
'This is what Maeve and Josh fans have been waiting for' ?????
'I need more already from this addictive series' ?????
'This book was really unputdownable!' ?????
'It's 1am and I should have been asleep hours ago, but I couldn't put the book down' ?????
'Hard to review without spoilers!' ?????
'Expect nail biting and very late nights... It stays tense to the very, very end' ?????
'I have not read any in this series before but I am hooked!' ?????
'OMG!!!!!!!! The way Jane Casey is able to surprise me book after book' ?????
The latest gripping new thriller featuring DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent from the Top Ten Sunday Times bestselling author
'The most dangerously addictive series in crime fiction' ERIN KELLY
'Oh. My. God.' RUTH WARE
'I LOVE it - it is completely MAGNIFICENT' MARIAN KEYES
'Utterly brilliant' LIZ NUGENT
'Sublime' ANDREA MARA
'An old-fashioned locked room mystery wrapped in a deeply moving love story' MAIL ONLINE
A closed door.
An impossible murder.
2:32 p.m. Wealthy, privileged Ilaria Cavendish checks into a luxury London hotel and orders a bottle of champagne. Within the hour, her lover discovers her submerged in a bath of scalding water, dead.
At first glance it looks like an accident. No one went in with her. No one came out. But all the signs point to murder.
For DS Maeve Kerrigan, the case is a welcome distraction. But when shock news hits close to home, affecting her partner, DI Josh Derwent, she faces the toughest challenge of her career. And if she fails her world will never be the same again...
Praise for Jane Casey
'With every breath in my body, I'm BEGGING you to read Jane Casey's books!' Marian Keyes
'The ultimate just-one-more-chapter read. Come for the thrill of a historic disappearance case, and get obsessed by the sexiest will-they-won't-they in crime fiction' Abigail Dean
'Jane Casey is simply one of the best writers of detective fiction today. There aren't enough superlatives. I'm in awe. I utterly loved it' Liz Nugent
'A twisting, seductive, sensational thriller. Tense, heartfelt and hugely gripping, A Stranger in the Family is Jane Casey at her phenomenal best' Chris Whitaker
'Nobody plots better than Jane Casey...the twist in the end was as surprising as it was satisfying' Stig Abell
'A Stranger in the Family blew my mind. 2024 has barely started and this is already one of my books of the year' Jo Spain
'As tense as piano wire, intricately plotted, endlessly intriguing and all underpinned by a simmering "will they, won't they" narrative. Just terrific' Neil Lancaster
'The undisputed queen of simmering tension. Explosively good' Sarah Hilary
'A wonderfully clever plot, surprises at every turn...one of the very best authors writing today' Andrea Mara
'Stellar stuff: funny, sexy, and a character and a case that will break your heart' Jo Callaghan
'This book hit the ground running and didn't let up' Sam Holland
'Her best yet, gripping and twisty but also moving and with a slow-burn sizzle that would put romance writers to shame' Claire McGowan
The Secret Room was a #1 Irish bestseller on Sunday 4th May 2025
READERS LOVE THE SECRET ROOM...
'Flawless writing, flawless plotting and flawless characterisation. I'm utterly addicted to this series!' ?????
'Definitely 5*' ?????
'You will not be disappointed!' ?????
'So compelling and tense right to the end' ?????
'This is what Maeve and Josh fans have been waiting for' ?????
'I need more already from this addictive series' ?????
'This book was really unputdownable!' ?????
'It's 1am and I should have been asleep hours ago, but I couldn't put the book down' ?????
'Hard to review without spoilers!' ?????
'Expect nail biting and very late nights... It stays tense to the very, very end' ?????
'I have not read any in this series before but I am hooked!' ?????
'OMG!!!!!!!! The way Jane Casey is able to surprise me book after book' ?????
Reviews / Votes
'A tour de force - an old-fashioned locked room mystery wrapped in a deeply moving love story' Mail Online'A rollercoaster of a ride, a police procedural par excellence all the way to the very last page'
Irish Independent
'A magnificent series and its myriad fans will not complain that, for the first time, the personal stuff almost eclipses the professional proceedings ... Newcomers won't regret it' The Times
'A magnificently serpentine mystery' Daily Mail
'Readers of the previous Kerrigan book will recall that it concluded with a surprising twist, which takes centre stage in this rich addition to the series ... Casey's characteristically light touch deftly keeps these elements aloft, the multiple domestic suspense plots and various police procedural elements enriching each other, as they do across all of her writing' Irish Times
'Sublime...the series has my whole heart. Combines a fiendishly clever murder mystery with a sizzling will they/won't they? tension' Red
'this gripping novel simmers with tension throughout' Platinum
'Addictive' Crime Monthly
'Oh. My. God.' Ruth Ware
'Jane Casey just gets better and better' Erin Kelly
'I LOVE it - it is completely MAGNIFICENT' Marian Keyes
'Each one of her books excels the one that went before and this is no exception. The heat is ON. I loved it. Utterly brilliant' Liz Nugent
'A sumptuous golden age locked room mystery wrapped up in a will-they won't-they love story. Sublime' Andrea Mara
'Every book just gets better and better ... a writer of intricate plots that feel utterly effortless, characters whose hearts beat on the page and, for my money, the best crime-fiction series around. The only downside to being a Jane Casey fan is the excruciating wait for more' Catherine Ryan Howard
'A captivating locked room mystery' Claire McGowan
'Jane Casey is an absolute A1, copper-bottomed GENIUS' Lucy Mangan
'My favourite Maeve yet, with two electrifying mysteries and an emotional heartbeat that had mine racing for the whole read' Jo Spain
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
318 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-870229-8 (9780008702298)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Jane Casey has written sixteen crime novels for adults and three for teenagers. A former editor, she is married to a criminal barrister so her writing is realistic and authentic.
This has made her novels international bestsellers and critical successes. The Maeve Kerrigan series has been nominated for many awards: in 2015 Jane won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Stranger You Know and Irish Crime Novel of the Year for After the Fire. She also won Irish Crime Novel of the Year in 2019 for Cruel Acts, which was a Sunday Times bestseller, and in 2024 for A Stranger in the Family. Jane's standalone thriller The Killing Kind has been adapted for television.
Born in Dublin, Jane now lives in southwest London with her husband and two children.
This has made her novels international bestsellers and critical successes. The Maeve Kerrigan series has been nominated for many awards: in 2015 Jane won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Stranger You Know and Irish Crime Novel of the Year for After the Fire. She also won Irish Crime Novel of the Year in 2019 for Cruel Acts, which was a Sunday Times bestseller, and in 2024 for A Stranger in the Family. Jane's standalone thriller The Killing Kind has been adapted for television.
Born in Dublin, Jane now lives in southwest London with her husband and two children.