Echo Ridge is not a good place to be popular.
"What a weird thing to grow up with, though, huh? Knowing how easily you could've been the wrong twin."
—Ezra
In the town of Echo Ridge, Homecoming queens keep dying.
Twins Ellery and Ezra have never been to Echo Ridge. But with their actress mother entering rehab, they're sent to Vermont to stay with their aunt in the town where their aunt disappeared when she was seventeen.
But that's not Echo Ridge's only tragedy. Five years ago, Homecoming Queen Lacey went missing. Malcolm's older brother was the prime suspect, and his family have never recovered.
Then another girl goes missing; Brooke, one of three potential Homecoming Queens who have been threatened. Ellery is another one, and this time Malcolm is the prime suspect.
The town of Echo Ridge harbours many secrets. And some are very close to home...
Two Can Keep A Secret is Karen M. McManus' 2019 standalone follow up to One of Us is Lying. One Of Us Is Next followed in 2020 and another standalone, The Cousins, in December 2020, with You'll Be the Death of Me in 2021. "One of Us is Back" is due in 2023.
Tropes:
- Aesop Amnesia: Ellery, in the end. After spending a whole book on the moral that keeping secrets is a bad idea, that it's toxic and dangerous and doesn't solve anything, Ellery chooses to keep the revelation that Sarah was killed in her sister's place a secret.
- Alpha Bitch: Katrin Nilsson. Specialises in back-handed compliments designed to undermine people's confidence. When Brooke goes missing, she all but accuses Malcolm of doing something to her, in front of Officer McNulty, because she just assumes they were secretly together.
- Always Identical Twins: Averted with Ellery and her twin brother Ezra, who are obviously fraternal.
- Played straight, however, with their mother Sadie and her twin Sarah. Which is how the sister was killed in her place.
- Arc Number: Fittingly for a second novel, the number two occurs frequently. Ellery and Ezra are twins, and so was their mother. The unsolved murders of two girls are hanging over the town, and two more murders occur throughout the novel, along with two attempted murders near the end. Finally, two brothers, Malcolm and Declan, are falsely accused of murder.
- Big Brother Bully: Declan had a history of behaving like this towards Malcolm, getting impatient and angry when his five-year-younger brother couldn't keep up with him. This makes it hard for Malcolm to completely rule out that Declan killed Lacey. At the end, he and Malcolm talk and Declan admits he badly mishandled things with his brother.
- Big Damn Heroes: When Brooke's body is found, Malcolm makes the mistake of going to school and is jumped by Kyle and Theo, who believe he killed Brooke. He's rescued by Declan, who went through something similar.
- Peter, the real murderer, locks Ellery and Malcolm in a windowless room and fills the house with carbon monoxide. They're saved at the last minute by Officer Rodriguez.
- Convicted by Public Opinion: Malcolm's older brother Declan was dating Lacey, the murdered Homecoming Queen, and was the chief suspect although there wasn't enough evidence for a conviction.
- The same thing happens to Malcolm later on, when he is the last person to see a missing girl and rumours begin to swirl that they were secretly hooking up.
- Cool Old Lady: Nana, Ellery and Ezra's grandmother. Despite having had very little to do with them until the beginning of the novel (because they lived on the other side of the country), once they live with her she's very caring and supportive, encouraging Ellery to go to college and even offering to help her financially as long as she keeps her grades up.
- Covers Always Lie: The hardcover edition of this book and its title give the impression that it will be a sequel to One of Us is Lying. It's actually an unrelated standalone.
- Dead Guy Junior: Ezra is the spitting image of Officer Ryan Rodriguez's father. Because he is also the twins' father.
- Foreshadowing: In the first chapter, Ellery's narrative reveals that her and Ezra's mother Sadie has only been back to Echo Falls twice since she was eighteen, including the year before they were born for her father's funeral. Turns out their father is from Echo Ridge.
- When Officer Ryan Rodriguez first sees the twins, he drops his coffee in shock. Because Ezra is the spitting image of Rodriguez Sr.
- Freudian Excuse: After the murder of her twin twenty-three years ago, Sadie is far from stable.Ellery:There are lots of reasons my mother got addicted to painkillers - a strained shoulder, a bad breakup, another lost role, moving to our crappiest apartment yet on her fortieth birthday - but I can't help but think it all started with the loss of that serious-faced girl in the photo.
- Gender-Blender Name: Ellery. Possibly a Shout-Out to Ellery Queen, or the series of the same name.
- Gene Hunt: When she and Ezra realise their father lives in Echo Ridge, Ellery becomes obsessed with finding out who it is.
- Girl Posse: Katrin, Brooke and Viv (a Blonde, Brunette, Redhead group no less), who hang out together shopping a lot, cheerleading and are the homecoming queen front runners. Interestingly, Viv is arguably the most bitchy, and that's more from insecurity about being less popular than the other two. The three are the most catty with each other instead of the unpopular students. By the end of the book it's revealed that each of the three has a Dark Secret. Brooke is having an affair with Katrin's dad and witnessed him commit a hit-and-run, for which he later killed her. Katrin suspects that her dad killed Brooke and is protecting him. Viv is behind some malicious graffiti, vandalism and threatening notes simply to provide a news story for herself to write about in the school paper.
- Jerk Jock:
- Kyle and Theo. They're on the football team and are colossal jerks. When Brooke disappears, they accept Katrin's assertion that Malcolm did it without question, to the point of threatening to kill him. When Brooke's body is found, they physically assault him.
- Declan has a history of acting this way, which is partly why people found it so easy to believe he killed Lacey.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Katrin has shades of this. Although she puts down her step-mother and isn't particularly nice to her friends, she has a few Pet the Dog moments. Early on, for example, she lets Malcolm take her car to leave flowers for their deceased teacher. She's also much nicer to him than many other Alpha Bitch step-sisters would be. This is averted in the end, when it turns out she knew her father was involved in the death of her best friend and helped cover it up.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:After Brooke's body is found, Kyle and Theo try to do this to Malcolm on the assumption that he did it. He's rescued by Declan, who went through this himself.
- Open Secret: The fact that Sarah Corcoran was murdered by mistake seems to be this. People all but talk as if Sadie really was the one who died, saying things like, "This town keeps losing its Homecoming Queens," before adding "or their sisters," as an afterthought. It seems to be taken as fact that Sadie was the murderer's real target.
- Pet the Dog: Katrin has a few of these moments. She lets Malcolm borrow her car to leave flowers at their teacher's grave. She also tries to set up her best friend with Malcolm, even though Malcolm is unpopular at school and people still judge him for his brother being Convicted by Public Opinion.
- Police Are Useless: Played with, in stark contrast to One of Us is Lying.
- Played straight with Officer McNulty. He hated Declan because he dumped his daughter Liz for Lacey Kilduff. When Lacey was murdered, McNulty's investigation doesn't seem to have got past, "How can I prove Declan did it?" He hates Declan's brother Malcolm by proxy, even before there's a crime to suspect him of.
- Subverted by Officer Ryan Rodriguez, who saves Malcolm and Ellery's lives, based off the single-character text Ellery managed to send, because he already knew who the real killer was and was just building the case.
- Poor Communication Kills: Thankfully averted. Officer Rodriguez didn't suspect Declan when his class ring was found with Brooke's body, but still had to question him about it. Unfortunately, this resulted in a fight between Declan and Malcolm that sent Malcolm, with Ellery in tow, directly in the path of the real killer.
- The Sociopath: See also Villain with Good Publicity. Peter Nilsson, the killer. Attempts to murder his Homecoming date for dumping him, but gets her identical twin by mistake. Kills his teenage girlfriend Lacey Kilduff and then marries the mother of the chief suspect, so he can enjoy playing the hero after ruining the family's lives. Kills a beloved teacher in a hit and run, then kills his new teenage girlfriend when she wants to come forward about it. Finally, he's about to murder Malcolm and Ellery when they realise he's the killer, but Officer Rodriguez saves them.
- Villain with Good Publicity: See also The Sociopath.Peter Nilsson is a rich lawyer and "owns half the town." He's handsome, charismatic and involved with the community. He also married Malcolm's mother a few months before the events of the book, "saving" her and Malcolm in the eyes of the town after his brother, Declan, was Convicted by Public Opinion in the murder of his girlfriend Lacey. In fact it was Peter who killed her, as well as Sarah Corcoran eighteen years earlier, and now he enjoys playing the hero with the woman whose family he tore apart. He murdered his teenage girlfriend and organised the search party for her.
