Lindsey hasn't spoken to Rachael in twenty years, not since her brother's 18th birthday party at their parents' remote country house.
A night that shattered so many friendships - and left Rachel's father dead.
Now Thornbury Hall is up for sale, and the old gang are back there, together again.
A weekend to say goodbye to the old place, to talk about the past.
But twenty years of secrets aren't given up lightly. Some won't speak about what happened that night.
While others want to ensure that no one does.
Surviving the weekend is going to depend on whether you can keep a secret...
Can You Keep A Secret is the fourth book from Karen Perry, writing duo Karen Gillece and Paul Perry, but despite having several of their previous books in my TBR pile it's the first that I've had the chance to read. I'd like to thank Laura at Penguin Books for inviting me to be part of this blog tour and sending me a copy of the book to review.
The story alternates between 1991 and the current date featuring the Bagenal family, Peter, Heather and their children Patrick and Rachel, and their ancestral family home Thornbury Hall which over the years has been at the centre of many secrets and tragedies. Through the alternating timelines we follow their lives as we're drip fed snippets to events in the past that lays the groundwork to lead up to everything that is happening in the current day.
In 1991, we see Patrick and Rachel as teenagers at a boarding school with their school friends Niall, Marcus, Hilary and Lindsey, the central character despite not being a member of the Bagenal family, who are often invited to Thornbury Hall for weekend visits. Spring forward to 2017 and it's clear that these friendships are now strained and that Thornbury Hall has definitely seen better days. Patrick inherited the property following the tragic deaths of his parents but he's finally realised that it's now time to sell up but before he does he invites everyone back for one final party...
From the moment we see Thornbury Hall through Lindsey's eyes in 2017, you know that there is a story to tell and I was impatient to discover what exactly had happened in the past that had caused the rifts that were so apparent. With every chapter I read I thought I knew what was coming up but I was very much mistaken. The characters and their relationships were tortured and complex, and the authors have excelled in creating flawed characters that you don't exactly warm to but at the same time you feel compelled to hope that everything turns out OK for them.
It's hard to say anymore without giving anything away but it's fair to say that this was an intense, gripping read that once the drama got going, I couldn't put the book down until I reached the final shocking conclusion of events.
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