Seven for a Secret

A newcomer in Wiltshire, Frederica Hammond quickly befriends Rachel Grey and Tamarisk St. Aubyn, and together the three girls grow to adulthood and fall for handsome Gaston Marchmont. 100,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. Lit Guild & Doubleday Main.

The idyllic village of Harper's Green seems picture-perfect, with its Norman church, stately manor house and full complement of local busybodies. But as the prolific Holt ( Daughter of Deceit ) illustrates in this haphazard romantic mystery set in turn-of-the-century England, nasty secrets wait to be uncovered. Frederica Hammond, a spunky and expressive teenager who comes to Harper's Green to live with her Aunt Sophie, forms close bonds with Rachel Grey, a timid orphan, and Tamarisk St. Aubyns, daughter of the local gentry. Frederica immediately falls for Tamarisk's aloof and patronizing brother Crispin, who, at 20, already has a troubled past and a mysterious devotion to his two retired nannies, one of whom is quite mad. Enter debonair Gaston Marchmont, allegedly an heir to French and Scottish estates, who seduces Rachel, weds Tamarisk and terrorizes the elderly nannies before being murdered. The novel quickly unravels when Frederica and Tamarisk embark on a series of implausible adventures en route to a remote Pacific island rendezvous with Frederica's father, who abandoned her at birth. Pallid characters, insipid dialogue and bizarre plotting combine to result in a less than memorable effort.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Harper's Green is the name of the little English town where Holt's latest heroine suffers twinges of foreboding, is baffled by mystery, finds romance--and is shocked by murder. The time is a comfortable and familiar, vaguely late-Victorian era. Frederica Hammond--removed, after her mother's death, to Harper's Green to live with dear Aunt Sophie--will not learn for some time of the location, history, not to mention existence, of her father (of whom her mother had always refused to speak); but she will have other things on her mind. There are new friends--shy and timid Rachel, and naughty Tamarisk, daughter of the widowed Lady St. Aubyn and sister of handsome Crispin. Mysteries abound. Why is Rachel's household so sad, and why is her father so scary? What is the secret held by demented Flora, former nursemaid of Crispin--a secret that an old rhyme reminds her is ``never to be told''? There's a terrible confrontation with Rachel's father, a rescue by Crispin, and by the time the three girls reach their majority, the arising of all sorts of problems. Tamarisk marries most unwisely; there's a shocking murder; Frederica travels with Tamarisk to a remote island to find her father; and it's Crispin, Frederica discovers, who clings to Flora's secret. At the close, revelations and an all-consuming fire--a staple of romantic suspense novels. Holt's 31st and reliable as ever--she hasn't dropped one stitch. (Literary Guild Triple Selection for October) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.