Travel back in time with us as we discuss Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. This book has more plot twists than a roller coaster. It begins in the year 1961 as 16 year old Laurel is watching from her treehouse not wanting to join the family in her little brother’s birthday picnic. Her mother returns to the house with the birthday boy on her hip to get the special birthday knife to cut Gerry’s cake. Laurel is in a ‘woe is me’ mood as many teenagers go through, when adulthood is just beyond their grasp and childhood is clearly behind them. Laurel thinks no one understands how she’s feeling. “Youth is an arrogant place…”
Suddenly the…
“Certainties of a lifetime turned to smoke and blew away.”
…when Laurel witnessed a stranger approach her mother. Her mother put a crying Gerry on the ground. Unbelievably, her mother stabbed the stranger with the birthday knife. Unbeknownst to Laurel’s three sisters who were at the picnic site, Laurel must carry this secret for 50 years before she attempts to resolve her unasked questions. Her mother never explained anything except she was protecting her family from harm, stranger danger has always been a worry for mothers.
The rest of the book is told in 2011 and 1941. When Laurel’s mom, Dorothy aka Dolly, gets sick, Laurel returns to her family homeplace while putting her actress life on hold. Her thoughts return to a time when Laurel, Rose, Iris, Daphne were referred to as their father’s garden of daughters.. Most memories of her childhood are sweet but the nagging memory of her mom killing the stranger overshadows the rest.
On a visit to the hospital Dorothy weakly says that she’s thankful for a second chance. The fact that “People who led dull and blameless lives did not give thanks for second chances,” prayed on Laurel’s mind and spurred her into action.
She discovers Dorothy aka Dolly lost her family in WW2 and that she was once in love with a young photographer, Jimmy Metcaff. She had been given the book, Peter Pan, by someone named Vivian. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. She discovered Vivan was a well to do lady that her mother tried very hard to befriend but her plan backfired. What was living in London like during this horrific time? Many children were evacuated but many were in the hospital. The Blitz lasted for 8 months and killed over 13,000 civilians.
When the pieces of the puzzling past do not come together as quickly as expected, Laurel enlists the help of her younger brainiac brother, Gerry. Dorothy is getting weaker and weaker and can’t offer much help. Will Laurel and Gerry be able to discover the secret their mother kept for 50 years? Read this amazing book to journey with Laurel as she ‘goes’ back to 1941 London. Can dogged persistence put the pieces of the past into place letting peace prevail?