House of Secrets by Sarra Manning


published 2017



House of Secrets 2


[A young couple who have just moved into a long-empty house find a hidden suitcase]

House of Secrets 1Scuffed brown leather covered in old-fashioned labels from far away places. Paris. New York. Los Angeles. Zoe had seen similar luggage selling for stupid amounts of money in the chicest vintage shops of West London.

‘Should we open it?’ Win asked, but he had already snapped open the clasps and lifted up the lid before Zoe could tell tell him that they should drop it off at the vendor’s solicitor. Still, she leaned closer, intrigued, as Win took out a parcel wrapped in tissue paper, which disintegrated beneath his fingers. He shook out the folded fabric that was nestled inside.

It was a bottle-green dress cut on the bias. Zoe reached out a hand to gently touch the material. It was made of rayon or crepe, one of those old fabrics slightly rough to the touch…



HOuse of Secrets 3House of Secrets 4



commentary: I was lucky enough to go to a glamorous and sophisticated party to launch this book last night: I am of course open to being bribed with unusual cocktails, fizz, and fabulous canapes – but luckily there was no need. I had already read the book and absolutely loved it, so could consume everything on offer with a clear conscience. (I pretty much knew in advance that I would love it – see my enthusiastic post about Sarra Manning’s last book, After the Last Dance, here on the blog.)

This one has a great setup – two distinct storylines, one contemporary and one in the 1930s, linked by a London house in a way that isn’t revealed to begin with. Zoe and Win, above, have moved into a long-empty house, trying to rebuild their relationship after something went badly wrong. They are doing it up, even if Zoe sometimes feels that they’ll be
working long past retirement age, coach parties swinging past to take pictures of the house that hadn’t been lived in for 80 years, then had the builders in for another 40.
Meanwhile, more or less alternate chapters tell us the story of Libby, the owner of the green dress, knocking round 1930s London (not in the house of the title…) after an unfortunate series of events of her own. We first meet her, quite splendidly, acting as the fake adultery partner in a divorce case – a fascinating feature of 1930s life that also comes up, memorably, in Evelyn Waugh’s Handful of Dust, and is mentioned in Dorothy L Sayers Busman’s Honeymoon – see this blogpost for more details. (The arcane 30s divorce rules are laid out and explained in the book – I had never really understood them before.)

We follow the two stories in parallel – Zoe and Win are working out their own problems, while also trying to find out more about Libby, reading her diary which is in the suitcase, and watching the story unfold at the same time as we do. By the end there is a real cliffhanger about Libby’s story – I read a lot of crime novels, but few of them kept me as tense as waiting and hoping and dreading how things are going to pan out for Libby.

And, as in the earlier book, Sarra writes so well about women, and men, and their lives. These are real people, the kind you can imagine as your friends, they have faults and annoying traits, but they also have their charms and quirks. I thought the relationships in the book were very well done. When writing about After the Last Dance, I said about the heroine Rose
She is a great character – not a goody-goody, nor promiscuous, but somewhere in between. She is very sharp and smart and human. She also has an excellent interest in her clothes …
And that could apply to Libby too. 

There were various fine clothes moments in the book, but in the end I felt I had to go with Libby’s cherished green dress, which she wore to be married in. The drawing is from a collection of NYPL fashion illustrations of the 1930s. The photograph, from Kristine’s photostream, is a little too late, but seemed to be the right kind of green dress, and the mysterious head in shadow is in the spirit of the plot.

I took some photos at the booklaunch, but as is traditional with me they were all unusably terrible, so the photo of Sarra above is from her Twitter feed. She is a great friend to this blog – we met online, and are constantly swapping book recommendations. Thus, she has cost me a lot of money over the years – because anything she recommends I immediately buy – but I do forgive her….

















Comments

  1. Lucky you, Moira, to go to the book launch. I'll bet it was wonderful. And the book does sound interesting. I really like parallel story lines like that when they're done well, and this one sounds intriguing. Glad you enjoyed it.

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    1. It was great fun, Margot, as you rightly guess! And the book is excellent - the characters were very memorable, and she kept the plot going full-blast!

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  2. Moira: Saskatchewan divorce petitions still contain the following clause because of that decades old practice of faking adultery to get a divorce:

    I have truthfully set out the facts establishing the breakdown of my
    marriage and I have not entered into any agreement, understanding or
    arrangement to make up or hide evidence or to deceive the Court.

    Now the issue of adultery is all but irrelevant because, for over three decades, almost all divorces in Canada are based on separation rather than adultery.

    Changes come slowly to legal forms. The phrase last will and testament has been around for about 700 years though almost no one knows what a testament means in law.

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    1. That's interesting, Bill, thanks. I read in a novel once that Italians used to fake evidence about their marriages via postcards (can't remember the details) but that was to do with getting an annulment. It sounded unlikely, because you had to do it when you were first married, and surely most people actually do expect their marriage to last..
      It had never occurred to me that we use that phrase 'last will and testament' all the time, without even thinking about what the last word means!

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    2. The plot in the Astaire/Rodgers film The Gay Divorcée includes a fake adultery plot. Very funny minor (Italian, appropriately) character.

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    3. Oh yes, that's a great film! Nowadays the title would mean something else, but back then there was an issue with being too cheery, it was changed from Gay Divorce to Gay Divorcee.

      'Your wife is safe with Tonetti, he prefers spaghetti!'

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    4. Yes!!! All those plays on his name. And Eric Blore, too. Such a glorious movie.

      I actually told my mom when I was about 8 or 9 that if I could live in any historical period, I'd want to live in the 1930s. All they did was wear beautiful clothes, live in beautiful houses and go to fabulous parties, right? I think I watched a few too many of that type of movie.

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    5. Oh me too - I can remember slowly realized that it wasn't just that most people were living through a Depression, it was that filmsets were totally unreal anyway, for anyone. So disappointing. Bias cut satin wouldn't suit me anyway...

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  3. This sounds interesting, After the Last Dance sounds even better, but neither appears easily available here. Definitely sounds worth reading, though.

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    1. They are good books, and this one particularly would appeal to crime fans, I think, as it does have a mystery to be investigated and solved, and it is hard to forsee the ending... I hope it is published in the USA eventually. You would love the WW2 setting of Last Dance

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  4. Another one more you than me. A pass again.

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  5. I like the green dress at the top, but minus the dark red flowers, just the dress and green gloves. And where does one purchase green gloves?

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    1. I quite like the flowers. But yes, the gloves make the outfit, and yes indeed. The big department stores in London all used to have traditional glove depts., with rows and rows full of gloves of every size, colour and length. You would just go with whatever you wanted matching, and they would find. All gone gone now - the stores full of fashion concessions and designer names, but no proper departments.

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    2. Dandy was (fake) shopping for gloves in the Gilver book I just finished!

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    3. Indeed! Check this out https://clothesinbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/things-you-wouldnt-guess-about-gloves.html

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  6. I hope you will get notice of this comment, although it is quite a while after you wrote the post. I just wanted to say that I have just finished "The House of Secrets" with tears running down my face (I cry easily) and I really, really loved it. It was one of the pile of books I ordered for myself for Christmas based on recommendations from this blog and the best one by far so far. I AM a sucker for long-gone-by mysteries and/or double plot lines with one set in the past, and this one ticks all the boxes - not to mention that I have plenty of experience when it comes to doing up houses and living in renovation projects. And I thought the ways in which the relationships were developed, in particular perhaps the one between Zoe and Win, were very well done.

    Talking about double plot lines and the past lining up with the present - have you by any chance read a book called "Stone Virgin" by Barry Unsworth? If not, I think you might like it.

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    1. Yes, I do usually get notifications, insofar as I can ever rely on Blogger! So glad you liked it so much, it was a great book wasn't it? Full of all the right things - mysteries and secrets, and strong women, and the double timeline - and not at all clichéd, and full of surprises. I will make sure Sarra sees your comments, I know she'll be thrilled.

      I read Stone Virgin a very long time ago, when it was first out, I must look to see if I still have it. I used to love Barry Unsworth, haven't thought of him for a while. I did Pascali's Island on the blog a long time back.

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