Review: The London House

Title: The London House

Author: Katherine Reay

Publisher: 2nd November 2021 by Harper Muse

Pages: 352 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: historical fiction

My Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

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 pleasantries are cut short. 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.

My Thoughts

‘The London House filled me with awe. Its personality was dark and foreboding as it rose up four floors before me that first morning … Stories and secrets lay hidden in each room and I was desperate to discover them.’

The London House by Katherine Reay, is a wonderful dual timeline historical fiction story about family secrets and misunderstandings.  With themes of love and loss, hope and truth, Katherine takes her readers on a journey from past to present with devastating repercussions.

‘In World War Two, no one can deny there was a real mix and mess of loyalties. It must have felt like the world was ending and life would never be the same. What’s more, the enemy was sometimes within your own home.’

This book is well researched with clever links of how secrets from the past can impact and alter life in the present. The characters are well drawn out with intriguing diaries and letters from the past engaging the reader. Events of WWII are detailed with secrets and lies in the life of spies proving a real page turner. Where is the truth to be found?

“Your aunt is one of those stories. A woman, daughter of an earl, no less, who worked as a secretary for the Special Operations Executive, then crossed the great divide and ran away with her Nazi lover? You have to admit, it’s compelling.”

Dig a little deeper and it is clear that there are themes of healing through searching for truths and bringing them to light. How one must let go of the past in order to move on. Lovers of historical fiction, especially WWII sagas, will enjoy this fascinating story wrapped around a family mystery that evolved into a journey of self discovery. 

Some truths, some absolutes, are above perception. I hope that comes across.” “Powerfully. It’s what makes what we went through, what we fashioned for ourselves, all the more real and even more painful. No one got out of their own way to see what was rather than what they perceived it to be.”

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.