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jenkepesh 's review for:
The Secret Keeper
by Kate Morton
The Modern Mrs. Darcy online book club has us read one book for monthly online discussion, but offers others as part of a "flight." This is one of the books in the April flight, and I was able to get it at the library, or I may not have read it. I was expecting it to be...well, a bit too women's lit for my taste, and it certainly seemed as if it would be that way at the beginning, but I found it to be a highly readable story of a family secret that may go to the grave with the dying matriarch. As the book begins, a family picnic is underway, with the oldest daughter lagging behind. She is witness to a shocking event, one she partially understands but will have difficulty in processing throughout her life. Now in her 60s, her frail mother lets drop some things as her mind wanders, and the daughter finds herself compelled to go into her mother's past and figure out what happened during World War II during the blitz, for her mother has surely changed dramatically from what she was at that time, and has talked of her "second chance" in a way that concerns her daughter. This is a book that probably couldn't have been told well if it had been told shorter--so much of the plot depends on character explication. It was a very satisfying read, sending the reader down many "what if" paths about how a daughter can love a mother who may have done very dark things, and who we are at different times of our lives.