The Tree of Lost Secrets

Loved it from beginning to end. Enjoyed the various time periods and characters sprinkled in with real people of that era. Fast moving and very interesting. I enjoyed the way it was organized. It really flowed .

I have been a big fan of the author, Lynne Kennedy, for a long time and I’m delighted that her seventh historical mystery novel, The TREE of LOST SECRETS, has just come out. It’s going to be great for holiday gifting!With her background as a director of a science museum for 28 years and with a strong interest in forensic science, she has crafted a fascinating genre of historical mysteries. Each of her books takes a true, factual event from the past where a crime has taken place and links it to fictional characters in the present and solves the case using modern forensic techniques.With The TREE of LOST SECRETS, you get four mysteries for the price of one as she goes from WWII, to Halifax, Nova Scotia at the beginning of WWI, then to the Underground Railroad right in the author’s home town of Brattleboro, Vermont, circa 1856. She finishes with a story of spies in the American Revolution and the great New York City fire of September 21, 1776. I guarantee that once you are a few pages into this book, you will not be able to put it down.Helen, Marie, a golden retriever named Honey and of course, the ancient maple tree watching over the family home, are the thread that ties all of the stories together into a very readable and coherent package. All of her characters are believable and well developed. The true, historical events have been thoroughly and accurately researched.The TREE of LOST SECRETS is a 10 on my reading list!

Talented author Lynne Kennedy just keeps coming up with new ways to present us with her clever time traveler regression stories. The Tree of Lost Secrets can be looked at as a grouping of short stories, their sum far greater than their parts. While the tales could stand alone, Lynne weaves them seamlessly together, providing a wild ride from present-day Vermont to World War II Italy, World War I Nova Scotia, and on into more distant times and places, back as far as the Revolutionary War. As for craft, Tree of Lost Secrets is probably her best work yet. One of the most riveting scenes transpires between a patriot spy-in-training and George Washington. I feel I have met the formidable man. I learned a lot about things not on my radar, and was entertained while doing so. That, to me, is the mark of a fine work of literature. Our hero, Helen, is so busy solving mysteries that I found myself wanting to know a little more about her as a person, a character, and a player changed by her surroundings and circumstance. But this is as much a compliment as it is a criticism: Helen is such a well-drawn character that we simply want more of her! (and more of her trusty Golden retriever, Honey, too). The book has a mystical quality to it, something new for the author, and she handles this well. Highly recommended.

In Lynne Kennedy's newest offering, she departs from her previous science driven historical fiction. In "The Tree of Lost Secrets" she takes us on a more mystical journey and prods our imaginations to awaken. Underpinning the magical prose is her usual extensive historical research. Lynne invites us to revisit powerful true life events from the American Revolution to the Civil War and more recently World War2. All of these events are memorialized through individual stories beautifully woven together and shared with us through Lynne's creative use of one of nature's gifts--a beautiful old sugar maple tree, a repository of time and truths. Lynne Kennedy cleverly brings these stories to light through Helen Ainsley. Ainsley, the protagonist and a writer herself, has come to Brattleboro, VT seeking to find balance, renewed vision and creative energy for her life and work.As the Covid pandemic continues to dampen all of our lives, The Tree of Lost Secrets takes us out of the stark reality of our present on a trip worth taking. Each of the historical events described could well be the seed of a new novel. I will be eager to see where Lynne takes us next.

I liked all of the historical dates of the people in the book and how the character went about solving the mysteries related to the tree

Four mysteries from four different times are finally solved by one of Ms. Kennedy's main characters with the help of 2 other main players-a maple tree and a dog. Each period comes to life with its "people" and settings. All the stories take place in a rural VT town but could have happened anywhere.I found myself thinking of many of the characters after their mysteries had been solved. I felt relief for them! (Character attachment is a sign of a good book. Which THE TREE of LOST SECRETS is.)

This book was so much more than I expected. There were several stories within the main story, and they were all very interesting.

It was fun to read a book based in my hometown. I find books based on the history of our country very interesting.