The Art Of Keeping Secrets

by Rachael Johns, Harlequin Mira.

Winner of the Australian Book Industry Awards’ fiction prize 2016 for the contemporary sister saga The Patterson Girls, Johns spreads her wings to fly in her new novel. Fixating on a trio of “misfit” women friends, the blockbuster climaxes in New York, where secrets and lies – as old as their coming-ofage sons – unravel, amid cocktails and tickets to Mamma Mia! Slicing through complicated relationships – a heartless ex-husband with a clueless 20-year-old wearing his ring; a cross-dressing bedmate; a single mum hiding the truth of paternity – Johns casts her novels with feisty, fearless Aussie women. The “misfit” mates from prestigious grammar school town Dayton are travel agent and divorcée Emma (mother to Caleb, Laura and Louise, [their names] “… sounded like a herd of elephants”); taxidermist Flick, (“perfect” pin-up husband Seb and son Toby); and make-up artist Genevieve “Neve’’ (and son Will). Opening at the pre-school get-together of Emma’s ex-hubby Max and his new wife, our coterie closes ranks. An intoxicating ride.