SEVEN FOR A SECRET

Harper's Green is the name of the little English town where Holt's latest heroine suffers twinges of foreboding, is baffled by mystery, finds romance—and is shocked by murder. The time is a comfortable and familiar, vaguely late-Victorian era. Frederica Hammond—removed, after her mother's death, to Harper's Green to live with dear Aunt Sophie—will not learn for some time of the location, history, not to mention existence, of her father (of whom her mother had always refused to speak); but she will have other things on her mind. There are new friends—shy and timid Rachel, and naughty Tamarisk, daughter of the widowed Lady St. Aubyn and sister of handsome Crispin. Mysteries abound. Why is Rachel's household so sad, and why is her father so scary? What is the secret held by demented Flora, former nursemaid of Crispin—a secret that an old rhyme reminds her is ``never to be told''? There's a terrible confrontation with Rachel's father, a rescue by Crispin, and by the time the three girls reach their majority, the arising of all sorts of problems. Tamarisk marries most unwisely; there's a shocking murder; Frederica travels with Tamarisk to a remote island to find her father; and it's Crispin, Frederica discovers, who clings to Flora's secret. At the close, revelations and an all-consuming fire—a staple of romantic suspense novels. Holt's 31st and reliable as ever—she hasn't dropped one stitch. (Literary Guild Triple Selection for October)