REVIEW: THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS, BY DEB CALETTI

 

Callie McBride is restless and unhappy with her marriage.  Despite their many years together, she and her husband, Thomas Bennett, are living parallel lives in their Seattle home.

 
When Callie discovers a woman’s phone number in her husband’s trash, she concludes that he is cheating on her.  She takes this opportunity to take off for Nevada, to her Aunt Nash’s old “divorce ranch”; the phone call from her mother Gloria, reporting that Nash is doing strange things, according to a caretaker at the ranch, is just the impetus she needs.

 
Her sister Shaye joins her at the Tamarosa Ranch, a place they both recalled from their younger years with fondness, so they are dismayed at the shambles it has become.

 
Not only is Nash behaving strangely—yelling and throwing boots at the agent from Land Management—but she has a whole room filled with boxes and detritus from 1951…and she doesn’t want them to see.  At one point she starts burning things.

 
What is Nash hiding?  Is she hoarding things from the past because they are treasures, or because there are dark secrets involved?

 
Alternately narrated by Callie in the present, and Nash in the past, we begin to uncover something that happened a long time ago; something that will affect the present.  And as we follow these journeys, we learn a lot about these interesting characters.  The Secrets She Keeps also shows us an insider’s view of how Callie and Shaye view marriage, and what makes it possible to survive all the bumps in the road.

 
The lovely settings, from Seattle to Nevada and Lake Tahoe, are familiar to me, and I felt as though I was right there with the characters.  In the end, I felt a strong connection to them all.  5.0 stars.