The Past Has The Ability to Haunt Us All: "Secrets" by Erosa Knowles

Wealthy Industrialist David Baxter died and left Chastity, his Administrative Assistant the bulk of his estate. Great right? That was until she faced his greedy relative in a court battle over the estate, which opens a can of Secrets. Court exposure sets off a string of events that reach as high as the United States Senate Chambers and as low as State prison walls. Through everything, Chastity once again must face her past Secrets. Desperate measures won't allow her to push her childhood friend, Lt. Cmdr. Kenton Stone to the side, she needs his help, even though she hides the biggest Secret of all from him.

Everyone has a past and for some, that past is best left in the past. All of us harbor memories of things said or done we wish hadn't been said or done. Most of us just let the past lie dormant and move on. Yet there are times when the past keeps rearing its ugly head and no matter how forcefully one tries to put it back where it belongs, the ugly truth keeps intruding on the present.

So it was with Chastity. She was a beautiful black woman who had worked for and resided at the estate of a wealthy industrialist. She has been his right-hand girl, had lived quietly and worked efficiently. Together with her children her life was protected as were their lives, and that's just the way she wanted it to stay. All the carefully constructed protective walls came tumbling down when Mr. Baxter died and left everything to Chastity, writing his greedy sister out of the will. And from then on, Chastity's life as she kinew it was never the same.

This is really a terrific read, one that brings to life characters that run the gammit of human goodness and evil. Secret after secret revealed plots and plans that even Chastity hadn't known about, no matter that she had worked more closely with Mr Baxter than anyone. Yet even from the grave he was protecting her and seeking justice for the wrongs that had been done to her when she was a child. The evils of child sex slaves is alive and well in the world, and this story brings it into the harsh light and tells of the hurt, both past and present, that it does to its victims. It exposes the false values, the callous misuse of children to satisfy perversion in people in high office and who are continually protected by their association with other high ranking elected officials. Yet even their evil is exposed in ways that are surprising and will gladden the heart of readers as they recognize that whatever Mr. Baxter may have been, he was a champion for Chastity and all like her.

This is one of those novels that keeps on resonating in the reader's memory long after the final word has been read. It is a book that has a warm and heart-felt love story at its core, but the evil that surrounds the main characters seems to be never-ending. There are surprises, plot twists, and unexpected graces as well as times when the bad guys seem to be winning. This novel never lets up. It's just that good. I hope you take the time to buy it and read it. It's worth the time and money to do so. I give this book a rating of 4.25 out of 5.

This novel was released by Sitting Bull Publishing in August, 2011.