What do we really know about our mothers? I suspect that most of us know our mothers through the lens of being a child, but probably very few of us have gotten to know our mothers more fully as individuals. In The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton,a 
daughter gets a chance to get to know her mother by uncovering her past and revealing her as a person with hopes, dreams, secrets and regrets.
Laurel Nicholson is a famous actress who has been carrying a powerful secret for 50 years. One afternoon when she was 16, she was up in the tree house in her yard when a strange man came up the path and begins to talk with her mother, but the conversation ends violently and Laurel has spent most of her life trying to forget that terrible day. Now her mother, Dorothy, is dying and as Laurel and her siblings gather at their family home, the questions that Laurel has suppressed all these years about that day and about her mother demand answers.
As Laurel takes turns taking care of her mother, she begins to look into her mother’s past, and tries and find clues that will help her understand what happened that awful day. She traces her mother back to London and begins to find pieces of her mother’s life during the war and havoc of the Blitz. She finds a photograph and some news articles and eventually some people who knew her mother and her mother’s life begins to unfold; a tale of loss, misplaced trust, love, and redemption.
The book switches narrators between Laurel and Dorothy and Dorothy’s friend, Vivien. As Laurel uncovers new information through photographs and interviews, we as the reader get to hear Dorothy and Vivien describe what really happened and hear what significance each of these clues really had on their lives.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was that Laurel is in her mid 60’s. It is rare to have an older female protagonist in a book, and it was refreshing to have her more mature perspective on life. Laurel’s discoveries allow her to see her mother in a new light and to understand her struggles while seeing how her mother’s past influenced her and the ways that she interacted with her husband and children.
Kate Morton has written several other great books, The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden are both great reads as well.
Brenda’s Rating: **** (Four Stars out of Five)
Recommended For: Sharon, Marian and Lauren.
Book Club Worthy: Yes
Read in e-book format.
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