"Tempus Rerum Imperator: Time, Emperor of All Things" 1758. England is embroiled in a globe-spanning conflict that stretches from her North American colonies to Europe and beyond. Across the Channel, the French prepare for an invasion - an invasion rumored to be led by none other than Bonnie Prince Charlie. It seems the map of Europe is about to be redrawn. Yet behind these dramatic scenes, another war is raging - a war that will determine not just the fate of nations but of humanity itself...Daniel Quare is a journeyman in an ancient guild, The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. He is also a Regulator, part of an elite network within the guild devoted to searching out and claiming for England's exclusive use any horological innovation that could give them an upperhand, whether in business or in war. Just such a mission has brought Quare to the London townhouse of eccentric collector, Lord Wichcote. He seeks a pocket watch rumoured to possess seemingly impossible properties that are more to do with magic than with any science familiar to Quare or to his superiors. And the strange timepiece has attracted the attention of others as well: the mysterious masked thief known only as Grimalkin, and a deadly French spy who stop at nothing to bring the prize back to his masters. Soon Quare finds himself on a dangerous trail of intrigue and murder that leads far from the world he knows into an otherwhere of dragons and demigods, in which nothing is as it seems...time least of all.

(Waterstones.co.uk synopsis)

Daniel Quare is a journeyman for the ancient guild called the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. He wants nothing more than to rise the ranks of this prestigious guild but he cannot do that without first gaining some experience. The story starts with Quare attempting to steal a clock from the eccentric clock collector Lord Wichote, whilst on his mission he runs into the infamous clock thief Grimalkin and their encounter sets in motion events that will see Quare fighting for his life and coming into contact with things he would never have imagined.

1961: On a sweltering summer’s day, while her family picnics by the stream on their Suffolk farm, sixteen-year-old Laurel hides out in her childhood tree house dreaming of a boy called Billy, a move to London, and the bright future she can’t wait to seize. But before the idyllic afternoon is over, Laurel will have witnessed a shocking crime that changes everything. 2011: Now a much-loved actress, Laurel finds herself overwhelmed by shades of the past. Haunted by memories, and the mystery of what she saw that day, she returns to her family home and begins to piece together a secret history. A tale of three strangers from vastly different worlds - Dorothy, Vivien and Jimmy - who are brought together by chance in wartime London and whose lives become fiercely and fatefully entwined. Shifting between the 1930s, the 1960s and the present, The Secret Keeper is a spellbinding story of mysteries and secrets, murder and enduring love.

(Waterstones.com Synopsis)

Having been wrapped up in a world of high fantasy for the last month and a half I decided to give myself a break from the horrific events of ‘A Storm of Swords’ by G.R.R Martin and pick up a book that would offer me something different. As I perused my local Waterstones my eyes were drawn to the dazzling green cover of the ‘Secret Keeper’, the promise of escape entwined within it’s depiction of a young lady hiding herself from view in a picturesque garden and the title, giving the novel an air of mystery that I just couldn't resist.

Three days later here I am, having merely hours ago finished what I believe to be one of Morton’s best works. I have previously read ‘The Forgotten Garden’ and ‘The House at Riverton’ whilst ‘The Distant Hours’ lies languidly on one of my many shelves waiting to be picked up. After reading ‘The Forgotten Garden’ it was immediately added to my favourites shelf and so to shall ‘The Secret Keeper’ (once my Mother has finished reading it to my insistence, of course.)