The Secret Keepers

By Tilly Bagshawe

What it’s about?

Sweeping from the French Riviera to the wind-blown Cornish cliffs, this is a spellbinding novel about the fates and fortunes of the Challant family – and the devastating secrets that echo through the years . . .

The beautiful bastide at Beaulieu-sur-Mer has always been an idyllic retreat for the Challant family, a place of glorious memories and sun-drenched summers.
But the summer of 1928 changes everything.

One humid, stormy night, a young local boy suffers a fatal accident in the bastide’s grounds – and the suspicious circumstances around his death sets off a chain of whispers in the town on the Riviera.

For the Challant children, they have no choice but to move on and leave those terrible events in
the past.

But through the years of loves and losses, marriages and betrayals, the Challants’ lives will always be tainted by that night. And it’s only by unlocking devastating family secrets that they’ll finally be set free…

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 and the perfect summer saga. See

About the author:

Tilly Bagshawe is the internationally bestselling author of nineteen previous novels and has written for newspapers and magazines including the Sunday Times, Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. She lives in London with her husband and 4 children.

Thank you to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be a part of this fantastic blog tour and to Harper Collins for my gifted copy of The Secret Keepers.