The Housekeeper's Secret

A Novel

By: Iona Grey

Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill, Shakira Shute

"This BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN HISTORICAL is a SUMPTUOUS, PAGE-TURNING DELIGHT filled with an enticing mix of FORBIDDEN ROMANCE and buried secrets.”—Ellen Marie Wiseman, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Willowbrook

Duty, desire, and deception reside under one roof.

Standing in the remote windswept moors of Northern England, Coldwell Hall is the perfect place to hide. For the past five years, Kate Furniss has maintained her professional mask so carefully that she almost believes she is the character she has created: Coldwell’s respectable housekeeper.

It is the summer of 1911 that brings new faces above and below the stairs of Coldwell Hall—including the handsome and mysterious new footman, Jem Arden. Just as the house’s shuttered rooms open, so does Kate’s guarded heart to a love affair that is as intense as it is forbidden. But Kate can feel her control slipping as Jem harbors secrets of his own.

Told in alternating timelines from the last sun-drenched summer of the Edwardian Age to the mud-filled trenches of WWI, The Housekeeper's Secret opens its door to a world of romance, the truths we hold onto, and the past we must let go.

"RICH IN ATMOSPHERE AND BRIMMING WITH INTRIGUE, THE HOUSEKEEPER'S SECRET IS NOT TO BE MISSED!"–Amanda Skenandore, award-winning author of The Nurse's Secret

"BRILLIANTLY RESEARCHED…I rooted for Kate, fell completely in love with Jem, and will hold their unforgettable story close for a very long time to come."–Jenny Ashcroft, author of Island in the East and The Officer and the Spy

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

©2024 Iona Grey (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"A fervent upstairs-downstairs drama...Grey’s insightful narrative sheds light on ways in which the war 'jolted [Britain’s servant class] out of their 'torpor,' as one former Coldwell servant puts it, opening new opportunities for factory work and military service. This will keep readers turning the pages."—Publishers Weekly

"Moving from the heartbreak and terror of the Western Front, to the closed, deeply atmospheric below stairs world of Coldwell Hall, this brilliantly researched and beautifully written novel had me captivated from the moment I read its intensely moving opening pages, not letting me go again until I tearfully turned the last. I rooted for Kate, fell completely in love with Jem, and will hold their unforgettable story close for a very long time to come."—Jenny Ashcroft, author of Island in the East and The Officer and the Spy

"A wildly atmospheric and impeccably researched gothic romance, The Housekeeper's Secret will stay with you long past the final page."—Diana Biller, author of Hotel of Secrets

the plot twists

the only thing I disliked about the book, was just the slow beginning. other than that, I liked it overall.