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She has built a good life; a husband who adores her, a daughter she is fiercely proud of, a home with warmth and love at its heart. But things were not always so good, and the truth is that she has done things she can never admit.
Then one evening a phone call comes out of the blue. It is a voice from long ago, from a past that she has tried so hard to hide. Scott knows who she really is and what she has done. Now he is dying and he gives her an ultimatum: either she tells the truth or her will.
And so we are taken back to that long hot summer of 1976 to a house by the sea, where her story begins and where the truth will be revealed.
Published by: Simon & Schuster UK - Fiction
Year: 2013 - Paperback
Pages: 374
ISBN: 978-1-47110-235-6
When that phone call comes out of the blue that Christmas everything she has worked so hard for and strived to protect for the over 30 years is put in jeopardy. In 1976 having lost her mother young Jo Casey decides to leave Newquay in search of a new life in London. Once there reality hits that finding a job and a place to stay is not going to be as easy as she thought. She manages to stay in a hostel for a couple of nights but wakes one morning to find that all her money has been stolen and she cannot afford to stay. After a night on the streets of London she is at her lowest point when she meets Eve. Eve is her savior when she invites her to come back to her squat in Hastings where she lives with her boyfriend Scott. The three of them live out the summer of 1976 working for cash in hand and making what they can to sell to the summer tourists. One night will change their lives forever, leaving them no option but to the leave the squat never to return. Now that phone call has bought it all back and could ruin everything.
Last year I discovered Susan Elliott Wrights first novel The Things We Never Said and was absolutely gripped from the first page so you can imagine my delight when I discovered she was about to launch her new book 'The Secrets We Left Behind' on the 8th May. Having completed my challenge of reading 13 books from 'to be read bookshelf' I decided I deserved a treat and picked up a copy of Susan's new book and eagerly started reading it on the way to work on Friday morning. The one thing I do like about her books that they are made up of lots of small chapters. I had finished the first chapter by the time I got into work and was already gripped. Poor D has been a book worm widow this past few days and I finally turned the last page at Midnight on Saturday. When he bought me my cup of tea yesterday morning he did make a comment that it must have been a good read as he's never known me to be so quiet (cheek), but it really is a wonderful piece of writing.
It's definitely one I would recommend as your summer read.
Enjoy
Mx
It's always good to find an author that you enjoy so much that you're pleased when a new novel is published. You sound as if you really got into this one and I should imagine that the part about life in a London squat in the 1970s and the fact that there's a secret to be revealed was a page turner.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. Susan Elliott Wright is very good at starting in the present and taking you back to when it all began. It a bit like a flash back in a tv drama. I was a little worried that having read her first book that was so good that this one wouldn't be able to match it but it certainly did. The downside now is that I'll have to wait until she produces her next one.
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