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Book review: 'The Secret Rooms' by Catherine Bailey


Editor's note: This is the first edition of a new series at the Lebanon Daily News, where the six libraries in the county will rotate each month with a book review.

Although non-fiction and I don't always get along, this is one non-fiction book that I've read from start to finish, which is something that should be applauded for me. And I am so glad I did because this book has so much intrigue, secrets, mystery, cyphers and more mystery thanks to three deliberately created gaps in the ducal family's extensive historical archive. But what does it all mean? And what are the secrets this family is hiding? And why are they hiding them?

Let me tell you, readers, the lengths this dude went to cover up his secrets was extreme.

While he was largely successful in covering up the family secret, which remains cloaked in the mists of history, his personal secret regarding his military service during wartime was sussed out by the intrepid and determined detective/researcher of an author. There is family drama, a meddling mama, overwrought tensions between parents and child, and animosity and estrangement between same parents and child.