THE SECRET KEEPER by Renita D'Silva

Beautifully written and engrossing, but tragic in what Rani did, and what came of her. 

This is my first book by this author, and it was a decent one to choose, even though it inevitably veered towards lots of sadness close to the end - which was apparent early on from events in Esme's part of the tale, told concurrently as Rani's - and yet finished with happiness and hope for Esme. 

It's hard to review without spoiling it but Rani was in some ways a woman of our time, and therefore ahead of her time, and her father tried to straddle two worlds but ultimately let her and his wife down because he got greedy for power and title and fell into the old 'what will people say?' Asian mentality (trust me, I've grown up with it). Put it this way, I wouldn't and couldn't have forgiven or forgotten his betrayals. 

The book started off, for me, with delight and surprise, then came the 'you can take the boy out of India, but not India out of the boy' part, which really disappointed but which had to be to make the tale the way it was. It made me sad that her father was a fake liberal and a conformist just to be able to rule, stating that she was dead to him - it's an Asian thing that hasn't quite gone away in 2024 with some, sadly, if they're crossed by others asserting their independence, free will, free thought, etc. He reverted to Asian mentality and threats to get his own way, not caring about the impact on his daughter, wife or son. 

However, without the above, this tale couldn't be told. It made me sad for William and Andrew, but not for Prasad, who was a typical-in-some-ways Asian male with his blackmail, but also one who'd suffered at Rani's hands - indirectly - and who, it felt, wanted some kind of revenge. Her actions in this part of the tale showed her cowardice and weakness and frankly unforgivable actions. She chose to hurt William, could have lost him his life, damaged Andrew, and ultimately took the coward's way out, instead of confessing and accepting her fate.

Do I regret reading it? No, but I was sad that Rani was as fake as her father, though in a slightly different way. She didn't care about the damage she'd do to her husband, stepson and daughter, or who'd be left to pick up the pieces. She took not a noble way out - though some Asians, including her, might consider it so - but an easy way out, a coward's way out. She was selfish and self-serving, her father's daughter, ultimately. Her intelligence, her free thinking, her conscience, all deserted her, making her not the Rani I'd read about so far.

The book left me feeling more sad than happy, as it's about 75% sadness and unhappiness and 25% could-be happiness. But, I appreciated the craftsmanship, the younger Rani, and the failed tale of trying to straddle two worlds.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Boldwood Books, for my reading pleasure.