Book Review: The Secret Rooms

A friend of mine gave me this book for my birthday. She said she had enjoyed reading it over the summer and thought I would like it.

It had so many of the things I like. A mystery from the past a person in the present is attempting to solve. Someone who is digging through archives trying to uncover the truth hidden in one of the great houses of a titled British family. My tendency is to pick books set in the WWII era or Regency era, but this one was set during WWI. I’m glad I took the little departure from the usual!

The thing that really interested me, once I figured it out, was that the story relayed in this  book is true. The book declared right on the cover that it was “A TRUE story of a haunted castle, a plotting duchess, and a family secret.” (Sounds like the best kind of Lifetime movie, right?!) Even though it was on the cover, rocket scientist over here didn’t grasp that it was a non-fiction book until I’d read several chapters. LOL!

Once I realized the book was recounting an actual researcher’s quest to unravel a mystery, I was entranced. The book, written by Catherine Bailey, recounts much of the life and death of the 9th Duke of Rutland. John (the duke) died alone in the cramped family archives of his home, Belvoir Castle, of pneumonia on April 21, 1940. His son ordered the room sealed. Bailey was one of the first historians allowed in the rooms, and the person who discovered that John had carefully excised three periods of his life from the family’s papers. All correspondence or anything that could shed light on those dates—one from his childhood, another from the early 1900s when he was serving at the British Embassy in Rome and one more when he was serving near the front during WWI—had simply disappeared. John has seemingly spent the last days of his life making sure these sections of his life were effectively erased.

Bailey’s book takes you through her journey to uncover the truth, all the while weaving in moments from John’s life and information from his family correspondence and other records. If you’ve ever read A.S. Byatt’s Possession (or seen the movie, which is different from the book), the concept of finding clues within the archives will be at least somewhat familiar.

I’m a lover of mysteries and thrillers, but generally stick to the fiction variety of both. It was fun to come across a book that was nonfiction, yet delivered on all levels as a mystery. If you like the kind of mystery where everything is tied up in a neat little bow at the end, this may not be the book for you because while the secrets behind the excised portions of John’s life are uncovered, the motives and inner workings of those decisions and the people involved are not completely explained.

It’s a long read, but a worthwhile one, especially if you’re a history buff who has a penchant for archival research (like me). If you love a real-life mystery, check it out for yourself!