Keep the Secret

Tatiana de Rosnay knows a thing or two about secrets.  In her first book, Sarah's Key, Sarah locks her brother in a closet just when French police appear to take the family away, eventually leading them to a concentration camp.  Sarah has to make a quick choice.  Should she tell the police about her brother, or keep him safely locked away?  In the closet, he has no water, no food and no light, but also no Nazis.  I'm not giving anything away by telling you that Sarah decides to keep the secret, and hope that the family will quickly return to the apartment or that a neighbor will find her brother and save him.  Now that's a secret.

In her next novel, A Secret Kept, I am sure that there must be a secret, because the title tells me that, but after a third of the book, no one has mentioned it.  My hunch is that the main characters' mother, who supposedly died when they were children, is really still alive.  But the thing is, there is nothing about these characters that makes me care.  I'm supposed to believe that the staff in a resort town recognizes these people when they revisit after 30+ years?  Even though they were children when they were last there and are now in their 40s? 

What sealed the deal for me though was this line, delivered by a woman who had just slept with the main male character about 10 minutes after meeting him:  "I handle dead people all day long.  With the same hands that were stroking your dick a few moments ago."  Yes, she's a mortician, but still, no, no, no.  I'm done.  I've got too many books waiting for me to read them to waste time on this one. 

On the bright side, since I listened to this book on CDs that I checked out from the library, it counts for the Rewind, the Audiobook, and the I Love Library Books challenges.

Next up on CD:  The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Still Reading:  This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper