The Secret Keeper

Author : Kate Moore

Genre : Fiction

If I’m interested in a generational mystery, I pick up a Kate Morton book. The story travels back and forth from 1945 London during the end of the war, to Laurel Nicolson’s family farm in the English countryside when Laurel witnesses an unexpected crime, and then in 2011 when she and her sisters meet to celebrate their mother’s ninetieth birthday. She traces the story of her mother’s secret life from Australia to London to where she grew up at Greenacres. The secrets unravel slowly to a surprising end. Her metaphors are wonderful:

“Laurel wasn’t sure if it was just her, or whether he too discerned that a fault line had fractured silently across the surface of their friendship that night on the roof.”

“Dolly’s emotions were kites with long strings: no sooner did one dip than another brilliant color caught the breeze.”

“She was the sort of woman whose most amiable chatter contained acid  enough to strip paint from the walls.”