The Secret Keeper

In a bucolic English summer at the end of the 1960s, a young girl witnesses a shocking crime. Fifty years later, she sets out to find out the truth, uncovering layers of mystery and deception. Moving from London during the Blitz to the present day, this is classic Kate Morton: a compulsively-readable, entrancing mystery with a long held secret to be uncovered at its heart. 'Morton is masterful at controlling a story's flow and tension. Readers will not suspect the twist at the end.' - Publisher's Weekly 'Secrets told with exquisite timing.' - The Australian 'Morton has obvious star power . . . Her novels are Australia's most successful exports since Colleen McCullough's Thorn Birds stormed the world in 1977.' - The New York Times Book Review 1961: On a sweltering summer's day, while her family picnics by the stream on their Suffolk farm, sixteen-year-old Laurel hides out in her childhood tree house, dreaming of a boy called Billy, a move to London, and the bright future she can't wait to seize. But before the idyllic afternoon is over, Laurel will have witnessed a shocking crime that changes everything. 2011: Now a much-loved actress, Laurel finds herself overwhelmed by shades of the past. Haunted by memories, and the mystery of what she saw that day, she returns to her family home and begins to piece together a secret history. A tale of three strangers from vastly different worlds - Dorothy, Vivien and Jimmy - who are brought together by chance in wartime London and whose lives become fiercely and fatefully entwined. Shifting between the 1930s, the 1960s and the present time, The Secret Keeper is a spellbinding story of mysteries and secrets, theatre and thievery, murder and enduring love. - 2013 Australian Book Industry Awards (winner) - - New York Times Bestseller - - Sunday Times Bestseller - - Spiegel Bestseller - - El País Bestseller - "1961: On a sweltering summer's day, while her family picnics by the stream on their Suffolk farm, sixteen-year-old Laurel hides out in her childhood tree house, dreaming of a boy called Billy, a move to London, and the bright future she can't wait to seize. But before the idyllic afternoon is over, Laurel will have witnessed a shocking crime that changes everything. 2011: Now a much-loved actress, Laurel finds herself overwhelmed by shades of the past. Haunted by memories, and the mystery of what she saw that day, she returns to her family home and begins to piece together a secret history. A tale of three strangers from vastly different worlds - Dorothy, Vivien and Jimmy - who are brought together by chance in wartime London and whose lives become fiercely and fatefully entwined. Shifting between the 1930s, the 1960s and the present time, The Secret Keeper is a spellbinding story of mysteries and secrets, theatre and thievery, murder and enduring love." -- Back cover