The Love Letter by Lucinda Riley

A romantic thriller set in Londons 90s about a fictional secret love story that has to be hidden in order not to shake up the royal establishment, full of surprises and suspense up until the last page!

I read a lot of Lucinda Riley's but this is the first book with thriller elements I read from her and it did not disappoint.

The fictional story starts with the journalist Joanna Haslam, who attends the funeral of Sir James Harrison, one of the greatest British actors of his time. She helps an elderly lady who is unwell, who sends her an old, mysterious letter afterwards.

"I live a lie and that lie will last for eternity. I don't know for how much longer it is safe to write (...)"

Sensing a story, Joanna starts to investigate and tumbles into a net of lies, cover up stories and falls in love on the way.

She becomes closer to Sir Harrison's family, his grandson Marcus and his granddaughter Zoe and page by page she reveals more details about the decades old secret even the secret service tries to hide with any means. Finding the truth becomes a dangerous endeavour.

Cynics might say the story is too far-fetched, especially with fictional characters of British royalty involved and too many innocent deaths that stand in the way of keeping the secret, but the storyline is perfectly woven into a fictional dimension of British history. In the preface Lucinda Riley states that she has written the story more than 20 years ago and it is now published - and that's how it feels. One finds himself catapulted back into the year of '95 in London. An absolute pageturner that left me reading way past my bedtime until I reached the pages where the secret was revealed. Despite hints and ongoing smaller disclosures of the truth, it was unpredictable and gripping until the end.

If you like multi-layered twists and side stories and scandals, all wrapped up in a thriller with more than three different love stories, this is the one.