Faith Constance and Charles King
Dirty Little Secrets is one of many books from the game Choices: Stories You Play.
The main character moves to a place called Vermillion Lane, but before they can get properly settled in, a sudden death rocks the neighborhood...
Tropes:
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: After Valerie's death, the people in the lower half of the neighborhood bid "good riddance" to her, since she was cruel to them and never even paid them properly.
- Black Widow: The end of Chapter 2 has Constance hear a rumor that Charlie King killed their wife. It remains to be seem whether this rumor is true or not. Though Constance is convinced that it isn’t true when Charlie reveals they kept the medication for their own usage due to the stress caused by everyone thinking they’re a murderer.
- Company Cross References: Chapter 18 is called "Crimes of Passion".
- Depraved Bisexual: If Charlie King is female, Sadie is revealed to be this in Chapter 6, seducing both men and women for their wealth without any qualms whatsoever.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Throughout the book, there are several candidates for who the killer could be, with Sadie being a prime suspect since the beginning. The killer ultimately turns out to be Sadie's pool boy, Vince, who briefly appeared in a few chapters and was off-handedly mentioned in a couple of others.
- Everyone Has Standards: Sadie does have reason to kill Valerie, but she wouldn't resort to murder. In fact, when Vince is revealed to be the killer, she calls him out for it.
- First-Episode Twist: Chapter 1 ends with Valerie dropping dead from a heart attack that later turns out to be fake, she was actually poisoned.
- Gender-Blender Name: Inverted, Constance's next door neighbor is given the default name of "Charles" if male and "Charlotte" if female, even though both names can be shortened to Charlie. Also, the main character's default forename is Francis if male and Faith if female, though their default last name, Constance, can be used as a gender-neutral forename.
- Girl Next Door: Or boy, depending on their gender, Constance's new neighbor Charlie King is this, showing them round the neighborhood and helping them get settled in.
- Gold Digger: Sadie is revealed to be one in Chapter 6, having been known to sleep with old men (and, if Charlie King is female, women as well) in order to seduce them.
- Hate Sink: Sadie is this as the Alpha Bitch of Vermillion Lane who's trying to ruin Constance's life every step of the way, from trying to get their house (which was left to them by their late aunt) demolished to accusing them of Valerie's murder in Chapter 10 and turning the neighborhood against them.
- Red Herring: Throughout the book, Sadie is the top murder suspect, due to how much she hated Valerie, and later Allison turns up dead on the night that she wins the HOA election (which made Sadie furious enough to start throwing plates at the wall). The last two chapters reveal that Sadie was not the killer, nor did she have any part in using Vince to kill for her, he did it of his own accord.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Valerie Wright shows up to Constance's house to welcome them to the neighborhood... and drops dead of a heart attack minutes later. It's later revealed that she didn't actually have a heart attack, she was poisoned.
- Wrong-Name Outburst: In Chapter 14, Charlie accidentally calls Constance "Iris" (their dead wife's name) while they're making out. Constance is completely taken out of the moment and tells Charlie that they can't keep doing this if they're thinking of their wife during sex. Constance is especially weirded out if male.
- You Fool!: Sadie screams this at Vince in the final chapter, when it's revealed that he murdered multiple people "out of love for her".Sadie: You idiot! You killed my neighbors and made me look like a murder suspect!
