'Secrets' keeps reader in suspense

One sure-fire technique for keeping readers in suspense is for the writer to not know herself how the story plays out. At least, not exactly.

Patti Callahan Henry's fifth novel, "The Art of Keeping Secrets" (NAL/Penguin), is a case study.

"Beginning the novel, I wasn't any more certain than my protagonist of what was going to happen," says Henry. "Like her, I just knew that everything she believed in was called into question in a single moment."

What if everything you ever believed about your marriage suddenly was saddled with doubt? How would you deal?

This is precisely the issue confronting the character Annabelle Murphy two years after her husband's death in a solo plane crash. Murphy has coped by pouring herself into raising her children and investing time in her closest friends. Yet just as she thinks she may have pushed through the worst of the grieving process, she learns that the wreckage of her husband's plane has been found, and that he was not alone.

There was one passenger, a woman. Who was she? What was the connection to Murphy's husband?

The only person who knows is Sofie Milstead, a solitary young dolphin researcher. When Annabelle arrives on Sofie's doorstep, burdened with questions and a crisis of trust, Milstead also must contend with her own complicated past.

"Annabelle deals with the revelation in yo-yo fashion. One moment, she believes all was as she thought it was, the next moment, she plummets into despair. She tries to track down something that never can be fact: the matter of trust. I wanted the book to be more about the many things we believe that we can't prove and what happens when the thing you can't prove is shaken."

A New Jersey native, Henry lives with her husband and three children in Norcross, Ga., though the family spends as much time as possible at their retreat on Daufuskie Island. Her previous books are "Losing the Moon," "Where the River Runs," "When Light Breaks" and "Between the Tides."

"The Art of Keeping Secrets" is her fifth novel in five years.

"Personally, I'm not a good pre-planner," she says. "I never set it as a goal to write five books in the same number of years. Besides, I had written three or four years full time before I was finally published. Then I was just so thrilled to be doing what I was doing, there was no way I was going to stop. There were times when I'd think, 'I can't be a mommy and a wife and a writer,' but then another voice would say, 'Oh, yes, you can.' "

Keeping secrets is an art, and one few seem to master. But the book's title suggests more than is readily apparent.

"Keeping secrets is especially challenging in the South," says Henry, chuckling. "They're telling you without really telling you. The whole book is about what to keep to ourselves and what not to keep. Keeping everything to yourself still affects other people, even if they don't know about it. This is an underlying theme of the novel that relays itself in the title."

Murphy faces a greater quandary in that the only person who can answer all her questions, her late husband, is no longer around. She is left with two choices: let her faith unravel or continue believing in the integrity of her marriage.

"I wanted it to be a really difficult problem for her. In the end, she does make a firm decision, but it is not based on a lot of solid evidence. Is there ever that much solid evidence in our lives?"

Henry, who has completed the rough draft of her sixth novel, "Driftwood Summer," is a firm believer in "going to the mines" as a writer every day, getting something done, even if it's tangential to her principal aim. Her conversations with other artists have reinforced the conviction that whatever the psychological risks, not devoting oneself to a creative path would be more harmful than the possibility of rejection or failure.

"It's totally true. It would be harder for me to stop trying than to keep moving forward. When you meet others who feel the same way you do, you know you're not alone. Once you know this, you feel stronger in what you're doing.

"People ask what is one of my favorite things about being a published author. It's the relationships you build and the other artists you meet, whatever their field. When you're with them, it's almost like you've come home. They have the same urge or same longing to try for something that is always just beyond (their) grasp."

Reach Bill Thompson at bthompson@postandcourier.com or 937-5707.