This story is about a teenage girl who decides to keep her mother's secret for the rest of her life. Laurel Nicolson is a nationally acclaimed English actress. She is almost sixty years old and her mother is almost ninety. When Laurel was only sixteen years old she witnessed something horrible from the safety of a tree house and she kept it a secret ever since. Now that her mother is on her deathbed, Laurel wants to get to the bottom of the events that troubled her whole life and to discover her mother's true identity.
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The year is 1963. Lauren is sixteen and in love. She wants to sneak out of the house and meet a boy that she likes. She is playing hide and seek with her little sisters, Daphne, Iris and Rose. In fact she is hiding in the tree house hoping that her whole family will soon leave and go to the picnic to celebrate Gerald's birthday. The family goes to the picnic but Laurel's mother, Dorothy, carries baby Gerald back to the house. She forgot to pick up the family knife, the one that was always used to cut the birthday cakes in the Nicolson family. Laurel sees a stranger approaching the house and calling her mother by her name. The next second, Laurel witnesses her mother getting really scared and stabbing the stranger with the family knife and she faints. When she awakes, the stranger is dead and Laurel decides to tell the police that her mother acted in self defense. The policemen believe her and the whole matter is dropped.
Lauren, Daphne, Iris and Rose take turns in keeping their old mother company in the hospital. She is very week and almost delirious. She calls for Jimmy but the sisters believe that she is in fact asking for their brother Gerald. Laurel discovers a very old picture in one of her mother's books and she decides that it is time to dig deep and discover some facts about her mother's life during World War II and before she got married. The photo was taken in 1941 and it depicted two very young and very beautiful women, Dorothy and her best friend Vivien Jenkins. Laurel remembers the name of the stranger that her mother stabbed back in the sixties and she is very intrigued. The stranger's name was Henry Jenkins and he was a famous writer.
Dorothy was a very ambitious young woman. When she was only a teenager she decided to leave behind the peaceful English countryside and her family and move to London with her boyfriend Jimmy Metcalfe. Jimmy was an aspiring photographer and Dorothy wanted to become and actress. During World War II Jimmy started travelling and taking pictures hoping that he will transform his hobby into a career and make the money that he needed to marry Dorothy.
Dorothy was working as a maid for a high society lady. Vivien Jenkins and her husband, Henry, were living across the street. Dorothy was living in a big house and she started imagining herself as a lady. Vivien was a rich, classy and very elegant young woman and Dorothy took an instant liking in her. Vivien and Dorothy were both working in a soup kitchen during the war. One day, an old lady told Dorothy that Vivien dropped a precious locket on the soup kitchen floor. Dorothy offered to give Vivien back her locket. The next day, Dorothy knocked on Vivien's door but she was met by her husband, Henry. When Vivien returned she told her husband that she didn't know Dorothy. She also told Henry that she was probably a lowly maid for the lady across the street. Dorothy was really upset and she returned to her job. The old lady promised Dorothy that she will leave her the house and all her wealth in her will but one day she chocked and died and Dorothy was left with nothing but an old fur coat. Dorothy strongly believed that Vivien badmouthed her to the old lady friend and that's why the old woman left her nothing in her will. She decided to take revenge and to humiliate Vivien by sending her husband some compromising pictures.
Dorothy hatched a plan. She told Jimmy to follow Vivien and take some compromising pictures. She decided to blackmail Vivien and extort a big sum of money from her in exchange for her not showing the pictures to Henry Jenkins.
Jimmy follows Vivien and he finds out that she is working at a children's hospital. He can't take the compromising pictures because Vivien is not cheating on her husband. Vivien and Jimmy become friends and Vivien falls in love with Jimmy. One day, Jimmy confesses to Vivien and tells her that his fiancée, Dorothy, had it for her.
Dorothy decides to take the matters into her own hands and take the pictures herself. She takes some compromising pictures of Vivien and Jimmy at a children's play. She loses them in a café but someone finds them and mails them to Henry's house.
Henry is a brutal and extremely jealous husband. He beats Vivien almost every day. He tells Vivien that Jimmy is dead and that he will go after Dorothy because her address was on the envelope. Vivien runs away to alert Dorothy and to tell her to flee the city but the two women are caught in an air raid.
Old Laurel and her brother Gerald dig through some old documents and find some more intriguing facts about their mother. Dorothy and Vivien were never friends. Dorothy was a narcissistic young woman who liked to fantasize. She wanted to be Vivien's friend but Vivien was a troubled, cold woman, tortured by her husband and by her past. She was an Australian girl who lost her entire family in a car accident and was shipped to Europe to live with a rich uncle.
Dorothy was killed in the air raid and Vivien took her name and her identity just to get away from her horrible husband, Henry Jenkins. She moved far away from London and she lived her life under an assumed identity until Henry found her and she killed him in 1963. Jimmy was fished out of the Thames and he kept looking for Dorothy all his life. He found Vivien leaving as Dorothy and he decided to keep his distance and leave Vivien alone with her children and her happy family life.
Vivien was Laurel, Iris, Daphne, Rose and Gerald's mother. She died in her home surrounded by her children.
Best part of story, including ending:
The story is very intriguing. I liked it because it was never predictable and boring. I kept turning the pages and the story kept me hooked until the final words. The Secret Keeper is a very well written mystery novel and I loved it.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene is the one in which young Jimmy follows an even younger Dorothy to the beach. They are in love and Jimmy has a rudimentary camera, He takes a very beautiful picture of Dorothy in a field near the beach and they kiss for the first time. He decides right then and there that he will marry Dorothy no matter what. It is a very romantic scene that precedes all the horror of the war and all the drama ready to unfold.
Opinion about the main character:
I liked both Vivien and Dorothy. Vivien is a traumatized soul and Dorothy is an ambitious dreamer. They are both very well depicted in the book.
