Brad Meltzer’s ‘The House of Secrets’ Is Adventure Fiction At Its Best [REVIEW]

A woman finds out the stories her father told her as a child may just be true after all in Brad Meltzer and Tod Goldberg’s The House of Secrets. (Photo by Joana Kruse, Arcangel Images)

When an amnesiac awakens in a hospital she can’t even remember her own name. She definitely can’t remember the family secrets that were passed down from one generation to the next. Nor can she recall the tragic car accident that landed her there in the first place. So when strangers show up asking mysterious questions, what’s a girl to do? Find out in Brad Meltzer and Tod Goldberg’s brilliant thriller, The House of Secrets. 

Grand Central

We are very impressionable when we are young. Most of us think our parents are superhuman and would never lead us astray. That’s certainly the case with Hazel Nash. She always believed in her father, a television host on a show about conspiracy theories. So it is only logical that as a girl, Hazel devoured her father’s tall tales and learned to solve puzzles too.

One of her favorite stories was the one her father told about a priceless book that used to belong to Benedict Arnold and was buried inside a corpse. As a girl, she’d always thought these were more fiction than fact. But when an FBI agent shows up asking questions in the wake of a car accident that killed her father and injured her brother, she’s suddenly not quite so certain.

With no memory, Hazel has more questions than answers. Why is the government so interested in her father’s theories? Who is the corpse with a valuable book in his chest? Did her father get in over his head with people on the wrong side of the law? And why can’t she remember anything after the crash?

Frustrated by her failing memory, Hazel realizes it is imperative she piece together what her father was working on before his death if she is going get answers and ultimately track down a brutal killer.

As with many of Meltzer’s stories, he has populated The House of Secrets with unforgettable characters that are as quirky as they are memorable, and dropped them into a dizzying maze that is so challenging, you may just feel your blood pressure rise! This story is so breathtaking, it should come with a lap bar and a sign that says, “you must be this tall to board this ride.” It is that much fun!

Although Meltzer is a lawyer, this isn’t as much a legal thriller as it is a good old-fashioned adventure yarn. Think Indiana Jones meets Professor Robert Langdon. Hazel Nash is brave and unflinching, and a woman readers will happily follow in her quest for answers. The priceless book in question is practically mythical in scope and could very well have national implications. Thus there is a lot on the line here, and it makes for a riveting read.

If you like books that engage you on every level, that rattle your brain, test your powers of deduction, and yet are as compulsively readable as the best of Clive Cussler and Dan Brown, you’re going to love The House of Secrets. Make sure there’s plenty of room in your beach bag for this one this summer!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Brad Meltzer

Brad Meltzer is the number one New York Times bestselling author of The Inner Circle, The Book of Fate, and nine other bestselling thrillers including The Tenth Justice, The First Counsel, The Millionaires, and The President’s Shadow. 

In addition to fiction, Brad is one of the only authors to ever have books on the bestseller list for non-fiction (History Decoded), advice (Heroes for My Son and Heroes for My Daughter), children’s books (I Am Amelia Earhart and I Am Abraham Lincoln), and even comic books (Justice League of America), for which he won the prestigious Eisner Award.

He is also the host of Brad Meltzer’s Lost History on H2 and Brad Meltzer’s Decoded on the History Channel. The Hollywood Reporter recently put him on their list of Hollywood’s 25 Most Powerful Authors.

Raised in Brooklyn and Miami, Brad is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia Law School. He currently lives in Florida with his wife, who’s also an attorney. Visit Brad’s home on the Web, like him on Facebook, subscribe to his videos on YouTube, and follow him on Google+, Instagram, and Twitter.

Tod Goldberg

Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen books, including Gangsterland, Living Dead Girl, Fake Liar Cheat, the popular Burn Notice series, and the short story collections Simplify and Other Resort Cities. 

His essays, journalism, and criticism have appeared in numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Wall Street Journal, Las Vegas Weekly, Salon, and many others.

Tod holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Bennington College and directs the Low Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Riverside.

He lives in Indio, California with his wife, writer Wendy Duren. Visit his home on the Web, like him on Facebook, and follow him on Instagram and Twitter.

THE HOUSE OF SECRETS
By Brad Meltzer and Tod Goldberg
368 pgs. Grand Central Publishing. $28.