The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads: 1959 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

My thoughts: I had this mystery figured out at least five different times throughout the book. Because I'm smart like that. But then new information came to light so I had to change my mind. I did get one major part right but I completely missed the big shocker. Wow.

Typical Kate Morton style, there are double meanings in the sentence structure. Additionally, Morton is gifted in her transitions. Different time periods and different points of view left me hanging at the end of each chapter but only a short while but kept me reading. Slow starting after the initial shocker in the first chapter but impossible to put down once I was in the rhythm.

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*I received a free copy of this book from publishing company in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.