July 27, 2022

I am a fan of Siobhan Curham. Her approach to historical fiction is interesting as she always manages to find a unique approach. The Secret Keeper is no exception.

I was immediately drawn in by the name-dropping in the first chapter. It told me that a tone was being set that would draw me in even further.

I wasn’t wrong.

Elena comes from a different background than is usual in historical fiction novels. This plays perfectly into what lies ahead for her. This is one of the reasons the book resonates.

Yes, it still would have been interesting with someone from, say, New York. But Elena’s heritage allows the author to put her in positions that others would not have succeeded in. Yes, I’m being cagey because I don’t want to give those aspects away.

Aside from that, however, Elena’s path to helping the war effort is fascinating. Wisely, the author introduces characters along the way who are interesting enough in their own right.

For example, the people she meets in training; you know they will cross paths again one way or another.

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As for the plot – who doesn’t like a story of an unassuming person being chosen to become a spy and being thrown into dangerous situations?

Elena is intelligent and resourceful. Fortunately, this serves her well as she navigates the clandestine world she is inhabits.

The chapters involving Elena’s experiences in 1942-1944 alternate with letters written by her grandmother in 1940, as she dealt with Nazis occupying Paris. The reader learns a lot from these letters, but does Elena?

But I kept thinking there was more to the letters than met the eye, that they must help Elena somehow. Or play a bigger part in the plot.

And, no, I’m not going to tell you if I was right or not.

I loved The Paris Network and Beyond This Broken Sky by Siobhan Curham. I am happy to add her to my “one-click” historical fiction novels. The Secret Keeper is another winner.

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Author Bio:

Siobhan Curham is an award-winning author, ghost writer, editor and writing coach. She has also written for many newspapers, magazines and websites. Siobhan has been a guest on various radio and TV shows, including Woman’s Hour, BBC News, GMTV and BBC Breakfast. And she has spoken at businesses, schools, universities and literary festivals around the world.

Unforgivable by Natalie Barelli is one gonzo of a psych thriller. It starts out as one thing and morphs into another before ending with a touch of “what the heck did I just read.”

It’s all mostly good.

If you’ve read a psych thriller, you know that a common writing technique is to start with a prologue containing an event either A) in the past or B) during the action of the book.

Then it is up to the reader to find out either A) how the event shapes the current situation or B) where exactly the event takes place and why.

In the case of Unforgiveable, the author does something a bit unique. There is no prologue. The book starts with Chapter One, where the narrator talks about something and then says, “but we’re not there yet.”

It’s a clever way to do a non-prologue while allowing the narrator to control the story from the beginning. This is important because later in the book (no spoiler) the reliability of both the victim at the beginning and the narrator are called into question.

But we’re not there yet 😉

The book can be seen as a three-act story: the first lays the groundwork of a soon-to-be-family who has to deal with an obnoxious ex-wife. This actually takes up more than half of the book.

Again, it’s clever, because by the time the author starts throwing some twists around, the reader is invested in the crazy ex-wife thread.

I don’t want to give anything away. So, just quickly, the second act is where the main character (Laura) starts to question everything she thought to be true and the third is…well, where everything else happens.

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The author did a great job of making the villain especially toxic. There were times that I wanted to punch her. I thought the male in the middle was a wimp. He didn’t do anything for me. And the narrator was a bit weak as well.

In the “second act,” the author draws out a history between two characters that seemed to essentially come out of nowhere. It could have used a bit more backstory.

And that’s even before the reveals and twists start to appear – THAT is when it really goes gonzo. Additionally, once we get to the event mentioned in the first chapter, the book is essentially over, and it becomes a non-event.

Oh, and just an aside. I noticed this in the author’s previous book Unfaithful. The story takes place in Seattle. But there’s very little that actually identifies the city as such. Additionally, there are too many wrong words.

Americans don’t “ring” people, they “call” them. It’s not “potato mash” it’s mashed potatoes. One doesn’t eat “crisps” at a bar – they eat “chips.” It’s not that hard to do some searches to find the right word for something set in America.

But that’s a personal pet peeve.

The last chapter serves as a prologue, which also only quickly skims over the climax. I wanted that ALL to be much bigger – only because I really hated the villain that much. The character deserved much more to happen, and the reader needed that catharsis.

Unforgivable is still a good psych thriller. You’ll be questioning the reliability of Laura and the other characters. Natalie Barelli has done it again.

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Author Bio

Natalie lives with her family in Australia, where she is forever thinking about new ways of killing people and getting away with it. Before writing full time, Natalie was an IT consultant. Favorite past time? Reading fabulous thrillers, otherwise known as research. And when she’s not absorbed in the latest gripping page-turner, Natalie loves to cook, knits very badly and spends far too much time at her computer.