The Secret

Best-selling author Hughes (The Letter) returns with a story spanning 40 years. In 1975 Blackpool, England, Mary Roberts's dreams of starting a family with her childhood sweetheart Thomas collapse in one tragic day, the day she was to tell him she was pregnant. An explosion in the mines takes his life; the trauma takes the life of her baby and sends her reeling. Fast-forward to 2016, the scene of Mary's funeral. Her daughter, Beth, faces a medical crisis in her family and neither she nor her husband, Michael, has been able to uncover the identity of her father, the last hope they have to trace a potential kidney donor for their ailing son. As Beth combs through Mary's belongings for a clue, she comes across an odd letter and newspaper clipping that take her on strange journey, and she begins to piece together secrets from her past.