Secrets Kept By Linda Sillitoe Signature Books (Salt Lake City), 1995. 288 pages. ISBN: 1-56085-079-5 Suggested retail price: $15.95 (US) Genre: Fiction
Reviewed by: Valerie Clark

[ - SNIP - ]

Review of Secrets Keep by Linda Sillitoe. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995. Reviewed by Valerie Clark.

"Had anyone told Roger Lewis he would be capable at age thirty-three of abandoning his young family without a word, he wouldn't have believed it." Thus begins Linda Sillitoe's second novel, Secrets Keep. Roger is a happily married Mormon accountant. His disappearance is the first dissonant note in a family polyphony of voices who weave their own stories around the secret of what happened to him. And Roger is not the only member of the Lewis family to depart unexpectedly. The first child, Boyd, died at age 19 in ambiguous circumstances.

Barbara, oldest daughter, almost perfect Mormon homemaker, will cope. Caitlin, daughter number two, has twins, a busy husband, and a saturated career as an investigative reporter. Her last 18 months have been devoted to covering the trial of a serial killer. Marly, the youngest Lewis, is ward organist, single, a librarian, owner of a large cat named Lennon, and about to happily embrace a situation which is a Mormon parent's nightmare. Two other voices add counterpoint -- Nick Fazzio, the detective who worked with Caitlin on the murder trial and is assigned to investigate Roger's disappearance, and James Hubbard, the amoral killer whose crimes and powers are not nearly all discovered.

Obviously Secrets Keep is a page turner; you will want to know what happens. One problem for readers may be the plot's dependence on various characters' psychic powers to produce events and answers. Telekinesis, telepathy, dreams of the future, auras, hypnosis, a protective crystal -- one would expect these in a Stephen King dreadful or any fantasy novel, but the realistic, modern setting of Secrets Keep made me uncomfortable with the paranormal in such large doses. I also questioned the quick trust Detective Fazzio puts in psychic evidence. Tuned in readers will do fine; the rest of us can suspend our disbelief.

A good novel needs characters one cares about, and this one has them. Caitlin battles every kind of stress: job burnout, cracking marriage, lost brothers, a growing but confusing psychic gift, and a mysterious connection to James Hubbard. Barbara is perfect, thus naturally irritating, yet still understandable. Marly is a joy -- someone comfortable with herself and her life regardless of public opinion. One of the minor delights of the book is her relationship with her bishop. Nick Fazzio is the hardest to accept because for a detective he seems Too Good. He has time for everyone, exudes concern and patience, and cheerfully believes whatever odd story Marly or Caitlin may tell him. Perhaps I have read too many mysteries whose crusty cops demand tangible evidence.

Good novels are well-written novels. Since Sillitoe is a poet and journalist as well as a novelist, one expects and gets a book whose style enhances the pleasure of reading.

Caitlin gives in to a headache:

She was so deep in currents of pain that lying flat at last seemed momentarily like easing into a sandy streambed. But soon the nausea and disorientation leaned toward her like bare branches, and the awareness of pain rose again, easing vision, filling her ears with the roar of water over rapids, as the flood closed over her without a trace.

Marly plays the organ:

The organ was old and tuneful, and Marly loved the feel of its worn keys and the way her hands lifted exultant notes, spewing the colored waves of sound above the harried, contemplative or drowsy heads of the congregation. The hymns always seemed to her the most essential part of the service, the simple core. The words sang in her head, but what mattered were the harmonies that flickered with the soft, luxuriant patterns cast by the huge, stained-glass window at the chapel's far end.

Sillitoe has written a book about Mormons that I believe will be interesting and valid for members and non-members alike. One needn't be Mormon to understand or appreciate it. Without preaching, the dissonance resolves into harmony as the secrets emerge. Truth begins to make this family free.