The secret KEEPERS
A PAGE-TURNING DEBUT NOVEL UNRAVELS A TRAGIC FAMILY SECRET
This novel has a lot of classic and familiar ingredients – an English country home, a family secret, a mystery surrounding someone’s true identity, and a dual narrative that keeps us moving back and forth in time. So it may not seem wildly original, but it does all come together in a page-turner that keeps you guessing.
Seraphine lives in a beautiful house called Summerbourne on the Norfolk coastline. She has just lost her father in a tragic accident and is clearing out paperwork when she comes across a photograph she has never seen before.
In it, her late mother Ruth is holding a newborn baby. Beside Ruth are her husband and her elder son Edwin. This doesn’t make sense to Seraphine. She is one of twins and on the day she and her brother Danny were born, their mother died.
So why is she here, looking perfectly happy and holding only one small baby? And why are there are no shots at all of Seraphine and Danny together until they are six months old?
The photograph sets her wondering about what really happened on the day she was born. She begins to question her own identity. Does she even belong at Summerbourne?
It seems that only one person knows the truth – Laura Silveira, the au pair at Summerbourne 25 years ago. Seraphine decides to track her down but keeps hitting obstacles.
We are taken back to the early 1990s and the present-day narrative is interspersed with Laura’s story as she arrives at Summerbourne as a naive young girl to take up the job of au pair. She meets tricky, beautiful Ruth and her husband
Dominic, and the handsome Uncle Alex, and learns of a family tragedy, little knowing that another is coming.
This is a fairly complicated set-up and as I got further into the story, I very nearly plotted out a family tree to get to grips with who was really who.
The big twist is a bit of a stretch and in general the whole thing seems pretty far-fetched, but that doesn’t make it any less of an entertaining mystery.
A fun and pacey summer read.