The Secret Keeper

 

Summary (from the publisher): 1961 England. Laurel Nicolson is sixteen years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.

Fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress, living in London. She returns to Green Acres for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday and finds herself overwhelmed by memories and questions she has not thought about for decades. She decides to find out the truth about the events of that summer day and lay to rest her own feelings of guilt. One photograph, of her mother and a woman Laurel has never met, called Vivian, is her first clue.

The Secret Keeper explores longings and dreams, the lengths some people go to fulfill them, and the strange consequences they sometimes have. It is a story of lovers, friends, dreamers and schemers, play-acting and deception told against a backdrop of events that changed the world.

 

Review: I received a copy of this book from Net Galley.

 

I love Kate Morton.  She is one of my favorite authors currently. Her novels have a great sense of atomosphere, Gothic mystery, mysterious characters, history-filled old mansions, intriguing plot twists, and are always set in bygone days of England that appeal greatly to me. However, while still compelling, this was my least favorite of the four of her novels I have read.

 

The Secret Keeper tells the story of Laurel, who uncovers the history of her mother Dorothy's past. The perspective alternates between that of Laurel as an adult and a child and her mother during World War II. Before Dorothy married and had her children, she was in love with a man named Jimmy and obsessed with a woman named Vivien, with whom she invented a fantasy friendship. Laurel decides to find out what her mother's great secret is and what happened to Jimmy and Vivien.

 

This novel dragged more than previous Morton novels. She took nearly 500 pages to tell a relatively uncomplicated wartime tragedy. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if Laurel's perspective had had more individual substance rather than long and detailed descriptions of her library research and trying to reach her brother on the phone to see what he had uncovered.

 

Additionally, this novel suffered from some issues with characterization that previous Morton novels did not. Despite the fact that Laurel is the main narrator, little is known about her life other than references to her being a famous actress. Similarly, Laurel's many sisters are only mentioned with no real substance developed. I was also frustrated by the two versions of Laurel's mother Dorothy - her as a girl in the war and her as an elderly woman. The two characters seemed totally disimilar - I know, age and time can do that. The plot twist does explain some of this characterization issue, yet I still felt like it was left unreconciled.

 

I still enjoyed this novel and I will certainly still seek out future Morton books. I worry that Morton is running out of steam and I wonder if the problem with this novel is that she struggled to find an intriguing mystery to write about for this, her fourth novel. But I have faith that she will continue in her previously compelling storyline in the future. 

 

Stars: 3