Book - The Secret Keeper

When we moved, we gave away many, many books. It was hard to leave so many of our beloved books behind. We were glad to help other people start or add to their libraries. Once we settle in Kirkland, as a space saving (and money saving) measure, we decided not to purchase so many books and become frequent patrons of the nearby library. If I start a borrowed book and like it so much I want to mark it up, I stop reading, purchase the book and then continue reading. Certain authors are on my "must have" list. 

Kate Morton has become one of my "must have" authors. I enjoyed Kate Morton’s other books so much that I didn’t want to wait for “The Secret Keeper” to come out in paperback. I justified the expense by saying it was a way to support Kirkland's wonderful independent bookstore. 

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The Secret Keeper

by Kate Morton

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

summary & image

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There are major mysteries and secrets in this book. Can you figure them out before they are revealed? 

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Certain themes seem to run through Morton's books - 

Different social classes and the expectations individuals have for themselves and others. I'm amazed at the way the "lower" classes help the "upper" classes keep up the pretenses even when there isn't money to maintain the "upper class" life style. 

Family secrets - how accurate are our family trees that are supposedly based on biological relationships?

Houses that are almost main characters in the story - This is true somewhat in this book and even more so in "The Distant Hours" and "The House at Riverton." I've known some houses that have their own personalities - you can feel it.

from "The Secret Keeper" -  Laurel goes back to her childhood home. She looks at it from afar and "The thought came suddenly: the house remembered her."  On page 43 ...  Laurel's mother Dorothy, had described the house to Laurel - "The house, she'd explained to them many times, had spoken to her; she'd listened, and it turned out they'd understood one another very well indeed. Greenacres was an imperious old lady, a little worn, to be sure, cranky in her own way - but who wouldn't be? The deterioration, Dorothy could tell, concealed a great former dignity. The house was proud and she was lonely, the sort of place that fed on children's laughter, and a family's love, and the smell of rosemary lamb roasting in the oven. She had good, honest bones and a willingness to look forwards rather than backwards, to welcome a new family and grow with them, to embrace their brand-new traditions. It struck Laurel now, as it hadn't before, that her mother's description of the house might have been a self-portrait."

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More thoughts when reading this book - 

War and its effects ripple through the lives of many. There are people who don't come home. What happens with the people who live on at home? Then there are the people who come home but are forever changed. 

The devastation of the Blitz in WWII forever changes the lives of the people in this book. 

Mom's high school boyfriend, red headed StanT, went to England to join the Royal Air Force during World War II. Was the course of her life (and ours) changed when his letters didn't reach her? Was the timing of Mom's and Dad's wedding affected by Dad's military commitment and going on active duty after college at the tail end of World War II? What would have happened if they had waited to get married after Dad was discharged? For one thing, I wouldn't have been born - or at least not born in May 1946 - and that would unwind a whole bunch of stories and lives. 

Grandpa and Poppie were both in World War I. Grandpa and Grandma Celia married before he went to France. Poppie and Gram weren't married until after Poppie served in France. How did the war figure into their decisions?

A shirt-tail cousin in Michigan told me that John Bowman (Idah Bowman Browne's father & Mom's maternal great grandfather) returned from the Civil War a totally changed man - in a negative way. I didn't ask enough questions to get the details. 

I know the Vietnam War affected decisions John and I made as it did so many of our high school and college classmates. 

The Korean War affected decisions Joe made about college and enlisting in the Navy. 

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This book is definitely on my "read again" list. 

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Read a post about Kate Morton's "The Forgotten Garden" here