Uncovering a dark family secret sends one woman through the history of
Britain's World War II spy network and glamorous 1930s Paris to save her
family's reputation.
Caroline Payne thinks it's just another day of work until she receives a
call from Mat Hammond, an old college friend and historian, but Mat has
uncovered a scandalous secret kept buried for decades: In World War II,
Caroline's British great-aunt betrayed family and country to marry her
German lover.
Determined to find answers and save her family's reputation, Caroline
flies to her family's ancestral home in London. She and Mat discover
diaries and letters that reveal her grandmother and great-aunt were
known as the "Waite sisters." Popular and witty, they came of age during
the interwar years, a time of peace and luxury filled with dances, jazz
clubs, and romance. The buoyant tone of the correspondence soon yields
to sadder revelations as the sisters grow apart, and one leaves home for
the glittering fashion scene of Paris, despite rumblings of a coming
world war.
Each letter brings more questions. Was Caroline's great-aunt actually a
traitor and Nazi collaborator, or is there a more complex truth buried
in the past? Together, Caroline and Mat uncover stories of spies and
secrets, love and heartbreak, and the events of one fateful evening in
1941 that changed everything.
In this rich historical novel from award-winning author Katherine Reay,
a young woman is tasked with writing the next chapter of her family's
story. But Caroline must choose whether to embrace a love of her own and
proceed with caution if her family's decades-old wounds are to heal
without tearing them even further apart.
Praise for The London House:
"Carefully researched, emotionally hewn, and written with a sure hand,
The London House is a tantalizing tale of deeply held secrets,
heartbreak, redemption, and the enduring way that family can both hurt
and heal us. I enjoyed it thoroughly." --Kristin Harmel, New York
Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Names
- A stand-alone split-time novel
- Partially epistolary: the historical storyline is told through letters
and journals
- Book length: approximately 102,000 words
- Includes discussion questions for book clubs