Review: CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?, Caroline Overington

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 463 KB
• Print Length: 288 pages
• Publisher: Random House Australia (August 27, 2014)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00JP1AOZ6
• Source: NetGalley

Synopsis (NetGalley)

How well do you really know the one you love?

With her customary page-turning style and potent themes, this is Caroline Overington at her thought-provoking best.

'Why do some people decide to get married when everyone around them would seem to agree that marriage, at least for the two people in question, is a terrifically bad idea?'
The year is 1999, and Lachlan Colbert - Colby - has the world at his feet. He's got a big job on Wall Street and a sleek bachelor pad in the heart of Manhattan. With money no object, he and his friends take a trip to Australia to see in the new millennium.

And it's there, on a hired yacht sailing the Whitsundays, that he meets Caitlin. Caitlin Hourigan has got wild hair and torn shorts - and has barely ever left the small patch of Queensland where she grew up. But Colby is smitten and for Caitlin, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, a blissful future awaits - marriage, a big house, a beautiful little boy. But nothing is ever as perfect as it seems. And for Lachlan and Caitlin the nightmare is only just beginning.

My Take

I thought this started off a little slowly and tentatively, but it gathers pace to become a story of surprising twists and depths.

It is one of those novels that is hard to review because I don't want to reveal too much of the story simply because the synopsis doesn't, and I don't want to spoil it for you.

On one level it is the story of Caitlin's life after she sees the building next to Colby's apartment block in Manhattan, the World Trade Centre, crumble when a plane flies into it on 9/11. Like many others, Caitlin finds herself unable to board a plane, and so she doesn't return to Australia, and marries Colby instead. But that is only the beginning of the impact on Caitlin's psyche.

So I'm sorry, you are going to have to read it for yourself, to learn the story.

I'm fascinated by the way Caroline Overington takes one simple idea or event and merges it so seamlessly with other ideas.

My rating: 4.5

I've also reviewed
4.4, SISTERS OF MERCY
4.5, NO PLACE LIKE HOME
4.7, I CAME TO SAY GOODBYE