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The London House cover art

The London House

Written by: Katherine Reay
Narrated by: Madeleine Maby
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Publisher's Summary

Uncovering a dark family secret sends one woman through the history of Britain’s World War II spy network and glamorous 1930s Paris to save her family’s reputation.

Caroline Payne thinks it’s just another day of work until she receives a call from Mat Hammond, an old college friend and historian, but Mat has uncovered a scandalous secret kept buried for decades: In World War II, Caroline’s British great-aunt betrayed family and country to marry her German lover.

Determined to find answers and save her family’s reputation, Caroline flies to her family’s ancestral home in London. She and Mat discover diaries and letters that reveal her grandmother and great-aunt were known as the “Waite sisters.” Popular and witty, they came of age during the interwar years, a time of peace and luxury filled with dances, jazz clubs, and romance. The buoyant tone of the correspondence soon yields to sadder revelations as the sisters grow apart, and one leaves home for the glittering fashion scene of Paris, despite rumblings of a coming world war.

Each letter brings more questions. Was Caroline’s great-aunt actually a traitor and Nazi collaborator, or is there a more complex truth buried in the past? Together, Caroline and Mat uncover stories of spies and secrets, love and heartbreak, and the events of one fateful evening in 1941 that changed everything.

In this rich historical novel from award-winning author Katherine Reay, a young woman is tasked with writing the next chapter of her family’s story. But Caroline must choose whether to embrace a love of her own and proceed with caution if her family’s decades-old wounds are to heal without tearing them even further apart.

Praise for The London House:

“Carefully researched, emotionally hewn, and written with a sure hand, The London House is a tantalizing tale of deeply held secrets, heartbreak, redemption, and the enduring way that family can both hurt and heal us. I enjoyed it thoroughly.”—Kristin HarmelNew York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Names

  • A stand-alone split-time novel
  • Partially epistolary: the historical storyline is told through letters and journals
  • Book length: approximately 102,000 words
©2021 Katherine Reay (P)2021 Thomas Nelson

What the critics say

“Carefully researched, emotionally hewn, and written with a sure hand, The London House is a tantalizing tale of deeply held secrets, heartbreak, redemption, and the enduring way that family can both hurt and heal us. I enjoyed it thoroughly.” (Kristin Harmel, New York Times best-selling author of The Forest of Vanishing Stars and The Book of Lost Names)

“An expertly researched and marvelously paced treatise on the many variants of courage and loyalty.... Arresting historical fiction destined to thrill fans of Erica Roebuck and Pam Jenoff.” (Rachel McMillan, author of The London Restoration and The Mozart Code)

What listeners say about The London House

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Didn't Really Enjoy

This was not a great listen for me. I didn't enjoy the reading of the letters and diary entries to advance the plot. At times they were read out of order and were often repetitive. I felt too many of the conclusions reached were pretty contrived. I didn't find any of the characters particularly interesting or likable. The narration wasn't great. It sounded a little robotic at times. The narrator didn't sound particularly engaged.

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