best kept secret by Amy Hatvany

With alcoholism at its axis this wonderfully written book takes its reader into the deapths of despair and the freedom of knowledge.
The story of Cadence Sutter, her ex-husband Martin and their little boy Charlie,it shows in heartbreakingly real detail what the cost and pain of family secrets really can be and how a simple suggestion to relax can lead to disaster undreamed of. The author who is a recovering alcoholic herself paints an amazingly descriptive picture of how one by one all the little pieces of the picture shatter and pull away to leave a wreck of family, friends, success, love, hopes, dreams and ambitions in a heap, that slowly need to be built up so that a whole picture however altered eventually stands.
One of Hatvany`s real strengths is her ability to draw such real and believable characters and to leave you sympathetic to all of them even though their is a good chance you may not particularly like them, the book also paints a most empathetic and recognisable picture of day to day life, especially that of a mother and the little intricacies that link all of us mothers. It is a gritty book , the journey is not easy on either the characters or the reader but there is a bundle of humour and a realism that keeps you reading, the chapters and the back stories flow into the narrative particularly well and this book hums along. The love and warmth and humanity of the characters  and their stories, different as they may be are heart wrenching and yet redemptive, a hopeful book.
For me this was a page turner, I couldn't put it down.