The Secret Keeper

1961 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.

I was hooked right from the beginning.  This was a book that wouldn't allow me to stop reading, just one more chapter, just one more before I go to bed. And it so it went for a few hours until I realized the time, almost two in morning, and then I reluctantly put it down.  I resumed reading the first chance I got. And then I was done.

I loved the way the author transported me back to a time of conflict and hope,  that how it made me feel during the WWII scenes.  I love how well written all the character were, some good, some nosy, some catty and some down right mean.  I think it was a combination of all of this along with mystery of Dorothy and Vivian that kept me enthralled in the story.  I have to say I did figure it out at the beginning, but the author kept me second guessing throughout the story.  The ending felt right, even though I wanted a little bit more.  

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton (5/5) Historical Fiction; Published: Atria Books (10/2012); Favorite Reads 2013; Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2013 (5); Library; Books 2013 (13);