Review: The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

Title: The Secret Keeper
Author: Kate Morton
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Genre: Fiction
Release Date:  October 16, 2012

I can tell I don't have a lot of time or energy to read these days because it took me almost 3 weeks to get through The Secret Keeper. Kate Morton is one of my all time favorite authors and this book was just as good as her others but still, it took me long to read it.

Kate Morton, for those of you who do not know her, writes extraordinary novels; sweeping dramatic stories about love, loss, betrayal, hope, etc. She is the modern day Daphne du Maurier. Historical romance fiction.  

Her latest would not be my favorite of her four but it was still a wonderful read.

Here's the scoop from the publisher's website:

From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Distant Hours, The Forgotten Garden, and The House at Riverton, a spellbinding new novel filled with mystery, thievery, murder, and enduring love.

During a summer party at the family farm in the English countryside, sixteen-year-old Laurel Nicolson has escaped to her childhood tree house and is happily dreaming of the future. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and watches as her mother speaks to him. Before the afternoon is over, Laurel will witness a shocking crime. A crime that challenges everything she knows about her family and especially her mother, Dorothy—her vivacious, loving, nearly perfect mother.

Now, fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress living in London. The family is gathering at Greenacres farm for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday. Realizing that this may be her last chance, Laurel searches for answers to the questions that still haunt her from that long-ago day, answers that can only be found in Dorothy’s past.

Dorothy’s story takes the reader from pre–WWII England through the blitz, to the ’60s and beyond. It is the secret history of three strangers from vastly different worlds—Dorothy, Vivien, and Jimmy—who meet by chance in wartime London and whose lives are forever entwined.The Secret Keeper explores longings and dreams and the unexpected consequences they sometimes bring. It is an unforgettable story of lovers and friends, deception and passion that is told—in Morton’s signature style—against a backdrop of events that changed the world.


What Morton does really well is create complex characters and makes the reader get emotionally attached. She teases us with secrets and keeps us reading with her crafty intrigue. Mix it with a alluring setting (England mostly), a crumbling estate of some kind and a past and present story laid out at the same time, and you got yourself a book you can't put down.

I am looking forward to recommending this one this fall. A Kate Morton novel is always a good pairing with a glass of wine on the cool fall night.

Here are her other novels that I think you should read as well. You can find more info about them on her website, Kate Morton.
The House at Riverton
The Forgotten Garden
The Distant Hours

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child