Secrets Kept By Linda Sillitoe, 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: Tory Anderson

Synopsis
An LDS investigative reporter who helped put a murderer behind bars finds she has a psychic link to the murder and discovers more of his secrets.

I was looking forwarding to reading this novel because, it being published by Signature which doesn't have the same restrictions as the regular LDS publishers (Deseret, Bookcraft, Covenant, etc.), I thought the possibilities were greater. Well, I still believe the possibilities are greater when publishing outside mainstream Mormon publishers, but Secrets Keep wasn't successful at exploring them.

The one thing that did and still interests me about Secrets Keep was Linda's apparent attempt to write a "national style" book based in Mormon country with many Mormon characters. The main thrust of the book combines mystery, detective work, and psychological horror with the flavors of many popular national writers in these genres. On a much lesser scale Secrets Keep deals with issues that are national issues but take on a particular hue because the characters dealing with them are Mormons -- issues such as homosexuality and adultery.

As a novel in general (compared with the typical novel found near check stands in super markets) I found Secrets Keep a very slow read. More about that later. As a Mormon novel I found that Secrets Keep is not. The portion of the novel where the characters being Mormon really makes a difference from if the characters were not Mormon is very small, and the difference that it does make is for the most part tossed aside. More on this now.

The only element of the story that would interest someone who wants to read a novel dealing with issues from a Mormon perspective is the subplot where an active LDS man abandons his wife and children due to the belated psychological rift brought on by his brother's suicide (due to the social pressures of his being homosexual). This, to me, was the truely interesting part of the novel with great possibilities in exploring the Mormon culture. However, the author gives this subplot only minor page space and I almost wonder why it shares a part in the novel. It is mainly the LDS family members of the runaway who make up the novel, but their Mormoness is treated the way most average non-Mormons probably see Mormons -- as just another human being who happens to be Mormon. There is certainly no sin in writing Mormon characters this way, but it makes tagging characters as "Mormon" rather meaningless. For example, in the book we have an unmarried Mormon sister of the runaway having an affair with a married man (black and non-Mormon) by whom she becomes pregnant. Possible issue(s) here? But the author writes this subplot as if she were writing the average affair scene for a harlequin. Sure there are all kinds of Mormon women, some of whom may be just like the adulterous sister, but as far as I could tell, the sister did not have a Mormon soul. Neither did the book. But then, I don't believe the author set out to write a Mormon novel in the first place.

As a national novel (and by that I mean a novel that isn't interested in exploring the Mormon culture) I found it tiresome. The plot of the book relies heavily on the paranormal and psychic. I'll admit I've always had a problem with movies and books that deal with the paranormal because I am left with too many "whys?" An investigative reporter, sister to the runaway and the adulterous sister, gains psychic ties to a murderer who she helped put in jail. Working with a detective she uncovers other murders and past secrets by seeing things that have happened through the murderers eyes. It is written with all the ambiguity that usually accompanys the unexplainable. I believe it is the paranormal theme of the book that is supposed to carry it, but for me it became a major obstacle. I don't buy in to the psychic. I don't discount it either. But never having had experience with the psychic, I, as a reader would require some prepping. There was very little prepping in the book. It was just written as if it is an issue that the average person deals with daily. Most of the suspense was lost because the murderer is already in jail to begin with. It could have been much more gripping if the psychic events were leading to the capture of a killer who is going to kill again. I know that Linda would have done this if she had wanted to, but she seemed more interested in the paranormal in and of itself.

I really wanted to like this novel and had great hopes. I wanted (perhaps unfairly) to read a novel that deals openly with my Mormon culture. But as I already mentioned, there isn't very much Momon about the book (or it played only a minor role) and I don't think Linda meant to write a Mormon book. Casting my hopes for a Mormon novel aside, I was ready for a good mystery/psycological horror. But what I got was more of an exercise in paranormal experience. I know that Linda Sillitoe has excelled in investigative style writing. But I don't feel that excellence carried over into Secrets Keep.

Tory Anderson