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Any new book Eve Chase has written, I have picked up. She has consistently delivered excellent books that follow the pattern of buried secrets from the past bubbling up to the present. (Four previous books I’ve reviewed are The Wildling Sisters, The Birdcage, The Midnight Hour, and The Daughters of Foxcote Manor.) Every story goes back and forth between a past time and the present day. It’s a simple formula, and it works.
The Secret Thread goes between 1969 and 2024. Its main character is Mimi Mott, a rich and successful 70-something who has run a decorating empire. She has houses in multiple states and countries and a whole heck of a lot of stuff. Now, newly widowed, she is back in London after living decades in the US. Mimi is going through her possessions, curating an auction that will surely be the talk of the town.
She hires Jo, a 20-something freelance writer and editor, to help her sort through items in her London apartment and write background stories about them. Mimi had humble beginnings and has kept that early biography to herself for decades. Now, she’s ready to spill the beans, and she is sharing her story with Jo.
It’s not her life story, however; much of what she shares focuses only on the summer of 1969, when Mimi, then called Miriam, lived with her family on an estate called Rushwood. They work for the Caswells, the mother in particular a very exacting employer who wants the gardens to be just so. The Bramleys — Mimi’s parents, brother and sister — all work together on the property and live in a small cottage on the grounds.
That summer, Mrs. Caswell is working the Bramleys and all the other staff hard to prepare for a grand party. Then her two children — both young adults like Mimi; her brother, Alf; and sister, Pamela — arrive. As the Caswells draw the Bramley children into their privileged world, passions run high and events are set in motion that will tear apart the siblings and make huge changes for them all.
Jo is entranced by Mimi’s stories and does an excellent job writing them down. But she’s got a big secret of her own, and there’s never a good time to share it with Mimi. It, too, has the potential to bring hurt — or closure at long last.
The Secret Thread brings all the good stuff together, as in previous books by Chase. There are secrets, family ties, love, and tragedy. Plus, as usual, we get both country and city settings, descriptions of places we can armchair-visit, and here we get plenty of content about décor and flowers: beautiful things. There’s plenty to savor.
Again, another great book I can recommend.
Rated: High, though very close to moderate. Profanity includes 8 uses of strong language, around 10 instances of moderate profanity, about 25 uses of mild language, 40 instances of the name of Deity in vain, and about a dozen uses of British (bl-) profanity. Sexual content includes some kissing and brief references to sex, very few details. An older man is known to prey on young women. References to affairs. Violence includes two deaths.
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*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
