I know I keep going back to my favourite authors and this month I have both Morton and Moriaty on the list (might move on to N’s next month!) but I love their work, and as an author I also find it fascinating to see how their writing has changed over the years. I didn’t know when The Secret Keeper (which I read throughout thinking secret was an adjective and was a little confused, until finally working out it’s a noun) was published when I started reading, although the contemporary timeline being 2011 was a good clue. So this is an oldie.
The triple timeline is a Morton classic, and she captures each era in both the UK and Australia beautifully – you are there, with the characters. The plot is gorgeously convoluted with threads everywhere, the characters alarmingly (at times) real to life.
What I missed is her later lyrical style, because I love a lyrical style whatever the story contains. This book is far more straightforward in the telling, and perhaps it’s not the kind to lend itself to lush description and gorgeous metaphors. It’s quite brutal in many ways.
Nevertheless, it’s a page turner – and a worry about how can it possibly end satisfactorily? (I can’t say more without spoilers.) Nevertheless, it does, with one clean and totally plausible twist. An excellent read.
Find The Secret Keeper here.