Madeline Martin and the cover of ‘The Secret Book Society’.Photo:Hanover Square Press; Tori Stauffer Photography
Hanover Square Press; Tori Stauffer Photography
Madeline Martin is inviting you to Victorian England in her new novel,The Secret Book Society.PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the bestselling author’s latest book, forthcoming from Hanover Square Press this summer. Set in London in 1895,The Secret Book Societycenters a forbidden book club — and the women that join in order to escape society’s restraints.Eleanor Clarke, a mother “suffocating” in her tumultuous marriage; Rose Wharton, an American transplant and Lavinia Cavendish, an artist running from a family secret all receive a mysterious invitation from a recluse widow named Lady Duxbury, according to the book’s synopsis.
Hanover Square Press
Underneath the guise of afternoon tea, though, lies a book club, which offers Eleanor, Rose and Lavinia the chance of newfound freedom.
As the women share their secrets with one another and form an unbreakable friendship, they must learn to wield their courage, described as “their only weapon in the oppressive world that has kept them silent.”
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Ready to join the club? Read on for an exclusive excerpt from the prologue ofThe Secret Book Society.
Madeline Martin.Tori Stauffer Photography
Tori Stauffer Photography
London, EnglandJune 1895Clara Chambers, the Countess of Duxbury, entered her drawing room and considered the urchin who’d demanded to be seen at once. There was a leanness to the boy’s cheeks, with skeletal hollows visible beneath his collarbones, but his face and hands were clean and his cap appeared to be new.“My lady, your friend has been taken.” He extended his hands and her gaze fell on the item he offered.A single black kid-leather boot with detailed rose embroidery stitched alongside the lacings.She knew that boot. And she knew its wearer.“Taken where?” Lady Duxbury demanded.“The Coventry Lunatic Asylum.” He shook the hair out of his eyes, revealing an earnest brown gaze. “My lady called out as her carriage passed, asking me to tell you she was being took there and gave me your house number. She tossed me this boot out the window, so you’d know I was being truthful.”Panic hit Lady Duxbury.The asylum.
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!She’d been foolish.A lightheaded sensation washed over her as Davies and the boy departed. The golds and greens of her drawing room blurred into a nauseous palette. She leaned onto a table, drawing careful sips of air to set herself to rights. But how could she ever be right again with so much having gone so wrong, when she now realized that her strength was only a facade?The room sharpened back into focus and she glanced about to ensure no one had witnessed her moment of weakness.Her gaze settled on the boot once more, noticing a sliver of paper jutting from inside the tongue. Pinching the edge, she gently dislodged the note and unfolded it.She scanned the lines of the letter, reading her own writing and the familiar words she had put to paper two months before.You are cordially invited to the Secret Book Society . . .
source: people.com
