Secrets. Everyone has secrets.
Teenagers Beth, Carol, and Sally attend the same boarding school and are close friends. They share a dark secret that each one has promised to never tell anyone. Guilt, regret, and a fear of being found out surrounds each of them.
Carol leaves the boarding school while Beth and Sally continue there. They lose track of Carol and where she is.
Thirty years later, something is about to happen that will reveal their secret to the world: the boarding school is being torn down. This old school and all the land it sits on has been sold for redevelopment. Beth and Sally fear that more than dirt will be dug up. They need to get rid of the thing that will reveal to the world the horrible thing they have done. But no one can find Carol. She has distanced herself from everyone, so a detective is hired to find her.
This detective also has a secret.
In this psychological thriller full of suspense and intrigue, three ladies learn the dangers of keeping something that happened when they were teenagers a secret. The guilt they carry from keeping such a secret has impacted each of their lives. If only they had told, what would have happened?
Did I figure out what their secret was? Yes and no. I figured out part of it, but what I knew had happened was only the very tip of the iceberg. There was so much more to it, and that so much more was devastating to more than one person.
I was sent this book in exchange for an honest review. If you would like to read The Promise yourself, I’ve provided an Amazon link for you below.
Amazon Link: The Promise
Favorite Sentences:
Today I’ve shaped the washing as Kimimanjaro to remind myself of the days when I did not know that my mountains were to be made of washing – and molehills.
The garden was the very best thing about the Convent of St. Colman and in time I grew to love it – a breathtaking jumble of roses and cottage garden plants, elbowing each other for space in a blur of colour.
And I hate myself more than ever for all these years of lying to her.
Some of the staff are mingling – Miss Fox who inspired me with my English, Miss Hamper who failed to convince me that physics served any useful purpose.
New Words Learned:
buddleia – a widely cultivated shrub with fragrant lilac, white, or yellow flowers
Cluedo – known as Clue in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players that was devised by Anthony E. Pratt from Birmingham, England. … Several spinoffs have been released featuring various extra characters, weapons and rooms, or different game play. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluedo
fug – a warm stuffy or smoky atmosphere in a room
gauche – lacking ease or grace; unsophisticated and socially awkward
grand dommage – French for “great damage”
japes – practical jokes
maisonette – a two-storey flat where your front door is your own. This means that you can exit your home directly to the outside as opposed to a regular flat where you have a shared corridor. https://resi.co.uk/advice/general/what-exactly-is-a-maisonette
on my tod – a phrase that means “on my own.”
panto – short for pantomime
pillion – a seat for a passenger behind a motorcyclist
recce – reconnaissance
About the Author:
Teresa Driscoll – a former BBC TV news presenter – is now a million-copy #1 bestselling author. Her debut psychological suspense I Am Watching You hit Kindle #1 in the UK, USA and Australia and has also been number #1 in Italy in translation. Her second thriller The Friend again made the #1 top spot in the UK and Australia while The Promise hit #2.
Teresa’s work has been sold for translation to 20 countries and optioned for film. She also writes women’s fiction; Recipes for Melissa was auctioned at the Frankfurt book fair between seven German publishers and her second women’s fiction title is Last Kiss Goodnight.
During her long career as a journalist, Teresa worked for newspapers, magazines and television, including 15 years presenting the BBC TV news programme Spotlight. Covering crime for so long, she was deeply moved by the haunting impact on the relatives, the friends and the witnesses and it is those ripples she explores now in her darker fiction.
Teresa lives in glorious Devon with her family and blogs regularly about her “writing life” at her website – www.teresadriscoll.com.
