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Review No 9: Can You Keep A Secret? by Caroline Overington

12/9/2014

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When New York stockbroker Lachlan Colbert (aka Colby) and his friends decide to visit Australia to see in the new millennium their only plan is to have a good time. Unworldly local girl Caitlin's aim is to make some extra money working on the boat they have chartered. Yet in the space of a few days this unlikely pair are smitten and a couple of years later they are married and living in an apartment in Manhattan.

A decade later Colby and Caitlin have moved to the suburbs with their adopted son Benjamin. They live in a beautiful house in a nice neighbourhood. Colby's income allows Caitlin to be a full time home-maker. Yet within this veneer of the "perfect" suburban life exist some serious cracks that come to light all too horribly when a house fire finds Caitlin outside their home screaming for Benjamin while the neighbours gossip about just what going on in the Colberts home.
As always Caroline Overington uses a third party to tell her story, although this time she has moved away from the voice of the male Australian she has favoured in her past novels. Interestingly she has also introduced a first person element via Caitlin's blog entries. This provided a different perspective, although as a reader you are left wondering if these are actually Caitlin's real experiences or if they have been manipulated for public attention. It is cleverly done and I think it worked well within the storyline.

Caroline Overington once again takes a complex topic at large and brings it to light. In Can You Keep A Secret the reader comes to grips with the less heard of realities of international adoption as well as the complex forces that bring and keep some couples together.

Can You Keep A Secret is indeed a story about secrets and not good ones. The suspense is well paced throughout and certainly keeps you guessing right until the conclusion reveals the final stunning twist.
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    I am excited to once again be participating in the Australian Women Writers Challenge for 2019. Although I am not currently reviewing books for the challenge,  I am still reading. You can find my reviews from previous years below.

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