Review: The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

Autographed copy

Background
I've been waiting to read The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton for such a long time.  I wrote about it in May 2012 when her cover design was being released, and even had the chance to meet Kate Morton in person on 14 November 2012 where she signed my proof copy of The Secret Keeper given to me courtesy of Allen & Unwin (pictured left).

Until then, I've been savouring this delicious tome, trying to prolong the moment when I immersed myself in its pages.  Alas in January 2013 I could wait no longer.


The Review
I tumbled into the tale of The Secret Keeper easily, as I met the young Laurel just starting out her life, and the mature Laurel decades later, preparing to lose her mother to a terminal illness and suddenly wanting to know more about her life and the violent act she witnessed as a young girl. 

This is my favourite excerpt from the novel; Laurel is at the Bodleian Library and is asking Ben to look at one of the alumni collections:

"It's up a spiral staircase, you know, accessed through a door hidden in the panelling in the Hall. Like something out of Hogwarts." 

Laurel had read Harry Potter, of course, and was no less immune to the charms of old buildings than anyone else; but opening hours were limited . . . [ it ] left her rather panicked at the thought of spending another minute discussing either architecture or fiction with Ben.  She smiled with a dazed lack of comprehension (Hogwarts?), he met it with one of sympathetic realisation (muggle), and they both moved on.

All in all, Kate Morton remains one of my favourite Australian authors, and The Secret Keeper has it all: a great love story during WWII London, mystery, murder and in summary an enchanting historical fiction novel.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!