What do readers think of The Secret Keeper by Paul Harris? Write your own review.

The matter-of-fact journalistic style of Paul Harris catches your interest from the start of his first novel, The Secret Keeper. Possibly better suited as the pre-write for a movie screenplay, readers will be inclined to visualize interactions among the characters throughout the book. While not the lesson on Sierra Leone you may have expected, a good story nonetheless.

This was a good book. I enjoyed that it was about a country I knew little about. This book may be a little too gruesome for book clubs, but suspense readers will like this novel.

When a journalist returns to Sierra Leone to uncover the cause and reason for the mysterious death of his former lover, he runs into danger wherever he turns. The story leads us to all the answers, but not before taking us and our protagonist through many harrowing experiences. While this is a good, fast read and at times suspenseful, the flashbacks and twists get very confusing. I had to turn back a few times to determine what year the story was in. The author is also a journalist making me hope that his next attempt at fiction will be a little better.

War correspondent, Danny Kellerman receives a brief note from his former lover in Sierra Leone. "I need you. I'm in trouble." At this time, Danny learns of her violent death. The reader follows Danny's journey back to this hellhole.. His path leads him into a world of deceit and greed. Civil war surrounds Danny as he tries to piece together the answer. The theme will stay with the reader long after the book has been put down.

The Secret Keeper was written by Paul Harris, who was, in fact, a correspondent in Africa for four years, and knows his subject well. While it contains many of the essentials necessary to a good spy/espionage genre, there is also a lot of factual background information. Since the political crisis in Sierra Leone is a subject virtually unknown to me, this information was pertinent to understanding the characters and events that took place.

Needless to say, there are many twists and turns, good guys turn out to be not so good, bad guys are sometimes bad by necessity, but the horrible truths behind what has happened in that area are hard to disguise.

It was an exciting, captivating read with strong characters that I found difficult to put down. I highly recommend this book.

Overall, I must say this is a pretty forgettable book. The storyline concept is good, but the writing does not flow, the main character is a bit lame, and all the characters lack depth. This book may appeal more to male readers....but there is no way I can recommend it. Sorry.

A far-away place with political intrigue usually makes a good combination for a story and Paul Harris succeeds in his first novel. Harris's descriptions puts the reader right in the middle of Sierra Leone's civil war, with the seemingly casual nature of life and death in the war zone, the perceived invincibility of journalists and allies and foes who are not what they appear to be, Fast-paced, you do want to find out what happens. The ending will likely surprise a majority of readers, but you will feel satisfied with the conclusion upon finishing the book. Recommended.

In his first novel, Paul Harris has done the near impossible: combining a tightly designed mystery; love story and self discovery journey into a compelling and exciting read.

When British journalist Danny Kellerman is unexpectedly summoned to Sierra Leone - the place where he made his best and worst decisions in life and journalism - by his former love, he begins a journey that will have him questioning what is and isn’t real, relevant or true.

A great book for a club read, Kellerman’s journey is filled with physical danger, unexpected emotion and the ultimate journalistic conflict between truth and consequence.

A twisty and unexpected plot keeps you reading far past the time you’ve allotted—expect to be drawn into The Secret Keeper late into the night—and expect to see Harris again; hopefully this is the first of a long list of bestselling novels from a talented writer. I hope he’s already working on the next.