The Secret Keeper

Each member of the Nicolson family has a trunk in the attic at Greenacres, which serve as repositories for memories or, for those who have them, secrets. For the children, the trunk is a place to hold their cherished or important childhood memories. Morton uses the trunks as a key plot device that provides the clues to unravel the overarching mystery of the story. Laurel keeps a newspaper article in her trunk that identifies the man her mother killed as Henry Jenkins. Her mother’s trunk holds the items that Laurel (and the reader) eventually use to understand how Vivien Jenkins became Dorothy Nicolson: the white coat, the train ticket, the copy of Peter Pan inscribed from Vivien to Dorothy, and the unsigned thank-you card that turns out to have come from Jimmy. The trunk acts as another kind of secret keeper, hiding away these items that reveal the truth.

Morton uses photographs throughout her novel to represent the desires of the characters. Jimmy takes a picture of Dolly at the seaside and later dwells on this image as a symbol of his future; he wants to be with Dolly, and they talk of living by the seaside and raising children and chickens.