The Secret Keepers

By Tilly Bagshawe

What’s it about?

Sweeping from the French Riviera to the wind-blown Cornish cliffs, lose yourself in this spellbinding novel about one golden family – and a devastating secret that binds them, forever…

Year after idyllic year, the Challant family retreat to their summer house on the glittering French Riviera.

Until one stormy night in 1928 when a local boy suffers a fatal accident in the grounds. Overnight, it becomes a place of ghosts.

As time unspools, those dark memories loosen their grip on the four Challant children. And yet the local whispers about that night never quieten, calling them back to the house on the Riviera.

A family secret lies waiting in the past.

But dare they unlock the truth?

What I think:

The Secret Keepers follows the fortunes of the Challant family from the 1920s right up to the 1960s.

Rich and privileged, the Challant family are the envy of everyone. With homes in Paris, the Riveria and the ski resort of Megéve, they spend the year travelling from one luxury home to another.

Patriarch Charles is successful and ruthless, but there are always rumours and whispers about him that suggest his piety and success may not be all that they appear. His wife Clotilde hosts parties, works for charities and channels her thwarted creative aspirations into her astounding aviary and collection of exotic birds.

The book begins in the summer of 1928. The Challants and their four children are spending the summer at Beaulieu, their summer castle. Eldest daughter Genevieve is in love, son and heir Charles Fils is bored and restless, Renée is out exploring the countryside and 8 year old Ines, the baby of the family, is trying to understand the increasingly complex relationships between her family.

The tension increases throughout the summer until one stormy night when tragedy strikes and the lives of the Challants change forever.

The story picks up again in 1938. The children have grown and war is approaching. The ripples of the events in 1928 can still be felt and there are secrets been kept.

Ines is now a beautiful young woman with plans of her own. Her father is determined to expand the Challant empire and strategic marriages for his children are part of his plans. But Ines meets the dashing skier, Hector Gunn, a gorgeous and charismatic young man with ambitions of his own and her plans change.

I love the way that this book is structured. The skips in time allow the characters to mature and change and get to the most important episodes of the story.

As time passes, the Challant family has to come to terms with their past to understand the impact it has on their futures. The secrets of the past need to be revealed so that the family can find happiness.

The characters are interesting and complex. Ines, Genevieve and Renée each have different ways of coping with the past and even though their lives take them in different directions, the sisters are always there for each other.

This book has a bit of everything – atmospheric descriptions, luxury locations full of period glamour, secrets, mysteries and romance. Overall a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Thank you to Insta Book Tours for inviting me to be a part of this tour and for my gifted copy of The Secret Keepers.