Customer Reviews

The Secret Keeper

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Freetown, Sierra Leone is a haunted place for Danny Kellerman. He was sent to Freetown as a war correspondent in 2000--during the civil war--and it was the defining moment of his life, both professionally and personally. He met and fell in love with an American woman, Maria Tirado, who operated an orphanage for child soldiers, and realized a professional dream.

It is four years later and Danny is back in London. He lives with his current girlfriend, but his life has slipped into one of self-pity and loss. His job is unfulfilling and his personal relationships, specifically the relationship with his girlfriend and father are breaking down into sullen desperation. Danny is a haunted man. His past haunts him. Freetown haunts him, as does the loss of Maria.

Then one morning Danny receives a handwritten note from Maria. She is in trouble and asks Danny for help. She asks him to come to Freetown. He is stunned. It has been four years since they have spoken, now this. He decides to call her, but when he begins the search for a telephone number he finds an article about her death. She was murdered in Freetown three days earlier.

This plea for help prods Danny into action. He convinces his editor to send him to Sierra Leone to do a piece on the recovery of the nation after its civil war, but what he really wants is to investigate Maria's murder. When he returns to Freetown he finds the place nearly unrecognizable. The two sides of the civil war share power, and while the economy is thriving, the past is a cloying danger no one wants to revisit, and there is a simmering anger and fear in the city. And no one, on either side, wants to investigate Maria's murder: what's done is done.

THE SECRET KEEPER is a literary thriller that is stunning in its simplicity and power. The story is haunting and melancholy. It is told in two separate time lines. The first is in the year 2004 and it chronicles Danny's search for answers to Maria's death, and the second is his original trip to Sierra Leone in 2000 as a newspaper war correspondent.

The story and prose is saturated with regret and darkness. There is an overriding sense of fear and loss. Danny is a man who has defined himself by one moment of weakness--a weakness that did not seem like weakness when it occurred, but over the months and years that followed it has dragged Danny down with self-pity and, to a lesser extent, shame.

Freetown is captured perfectly as a city re-inventing itself on the ashes of its past. Its inhabitants know the past, but they do not discuss or want to remember it. The only thing worthy of contemplation is the future and the past will only harm that future. Danny is a remnant of Freetown's darkest moments and his investigation represents a very real threat to the leadership of Sierra Leone. An issue that will threaten both Danny and the few friends he has in Freetown.

THE SECRET KEEPER is a terrific novel. It is very much comparable to the work of Graham Greene, both in its thematic style and plot, but it is also a unique piece of fiction that captures the spirit and challenge of both Sierra Leone and the African continent--nothing is simple, the culture, the people, or the place. It is haunting, beautiful and ugly all at once. In a sense it is a snapshot of all humanity and the complexities that are inherent to modern civilization.

-Gravetapping

War time journalist, Danny Kellerman receives a letter in the mail from an ex-lover. Her name is Maria Consuela Tirado. Maria worked in Africa as an aid worker. Inside the envelope is a note from Maria asking for Danny's help. Unfortunately as Danny is reading the letter, Maria is already dead.

Danny books the first flight out of London to Africa. He has to know what happened to Maria. Once in Africa, Danny is greeted by an old friend, Kam. When Danny learns that Maria was murdered, his reporter instincts kick in. Danny is on the trail of one of the biggest stories of his career.

Mr. Harris's experience as a journalist covering the Sierra Leone war in Africa really was the meat that made The Secret Keeper so wonderfully good. His first hand knowledge of basing this book on what he saw, really made this story come alive. Instantly, I was transported to Africa...following in Danny's footsteps every step of the way. This book switched back and forth between the past and the present and it did it very well. Mr. Harris put real emotions to his characters. They were not one dimensional. Anyone looking to read a really good book that has adventure, romance, great characters, and a author who knows how to write...then you have to check out The Secret Keeper by Paul Harris.

The Secret Keeper by Paul Harris does not read like a debut novel, but like a well-engineered corkscrew ride through the African heat and the deep recesses of our humanity and morality.

In the early 1990s, civil war began in Sierra Leone--a former British colony ripe with diamond mines--as rebels recruited students and children to fight against the government for more than a decade. The brutality present in the nation at this time comes across vividly in the pages of The Secret Keeper, which readers can easily attribute to the author's personal experience. It is apparent that those images stuck with Harris as he was writing his debut novel.

Danny Kellerman is a journalist in London whose first foreign assignment takes him to war-torn Sierra Leone. Once in Africa, he is immersed in the haphazard warfare between the Sierra Leone government, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and eventually the British government. Danny meets Maria Tirado, falls in love, and breaks the story of a lifetime about saving former child soldiers, but once the assignment ends he must return to his London life. His content existence is soon disrupted by a hand-written letter from his lost love, Maria, who begs him to return and help her. Along the way, he reconnects with some of his old acquaintances, including his driver Kam and Ali Alhoun.

A synopsis cannot do justice to this well-crafted novel about a war-torn nation and the impact it has on its own inhabitants, the world, and the individuals caught in its web. Readers will find themselves biting their fingernails as Danny digs deeper into Maria's secrets. But she is not the only character with secrets in this novel. Danny and the nation of Sierra Leone have a number of secrets for readers to unravel, stare at in astonishment, and almost wish they were left hidden.

Harris' The Secret Keeper will have readers reaching for the "[...]" as they rapidly make their way through this drama. Danny's moral compass is tested time and again, while Ali and others stick to strategies that ensure not only their survival but that they come out ahead of others. The Secret Keeper is one of the best novels I've read this year, and it will twist readers' emotions, ring them out to dry, and soak up the remainder of their tears.

Is the old conundrum of "sacrificing one for the benefit of the many" the way in which societies should operate? Should we determine our best course of action from this starting point? Read The Secret Keeper to find out how Danny Kellerman and his compatriots resolve these questions.

THE SECRET KEEPER opens with a torture scene and quickly grabbed my attention. Not that I like torture, but the fact I wanted to know the why and the who and the what had me up late turning the pages.

British Journalist Danny Kellerman was sent to Sierra Leone four years ago. A place where rebels rule, it was simplistic and cruel. There, he fell in love with American Maria, a relief worker who aids and rescues children. But when the fighting was over, Danny returned to England without Maria.

Four years later, Danny is happy playing house with his girlfriend Rachel until he receives the letter. It's from Maria and she begs for his help. Danny is unsure of what to do, so he googles her name on a whim and is stunned at the results. Maria has been killed by a band of bandits. Danny uses his journalistic connections to be sent back to Sierra Leone, promising a story on his return.

But what Danny finds on his return there is not as it was when he left. The area may seem like it has moved forward into the new century with less fighting and more technology, but Danny digs deeper sensing something awry. Those he counted as friends he finds are corrupt and those that led the rebellion four years ago now hold high ranks in politics. Danny is determined to investigate Maria's murder, but can find no help in any quarter.

A thrilling page-turner set against the backdrop of Africa lends details and credence to the plot that has a shocking, yet satisfying ending. Obviously Mr. Harris's own work as a journalist lent credibility to his first work, as the details are very authentic. For a debut novel, it is simply a stunning and haunting work. I finished it a few days ago, and still the story is fresh in my mind. The politics took me a little while to wrap my head around and get straight, but Mr. Harris lead the path in a simple way for me to understand that really added a punch to the storyline. Wonderful characters, a thrilling adventure, and romance blend together perfectly for THE SECRET KEEPER.

One of the most poorly written books I've ever read. There's an interesting plot here, but ruined by amateurish writing, corny similes, and a complete lack of editing. For example, "... was surrounded on all sides." How did this ever get published? I wouldn't have accepted it in a freshman comp class.