The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets (2006)

It's billed as a ''captivating novel about a group of postwar friends in London's glamorous and daring young society,'' but The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets seems familiar on every page. There's our heroine, Penelope, gawky and smart, who, at 6 feet tall, dwarfs her gorgeous mother, Charlotte (often mistaken for Penelope’s sister, of course); Magna, the dilapidated, crumbling medieval-era family manor hourse (''the extra bit was added...in 1625'') that Charlotte is struggling to keep in the family since the death of her husband in the war; the bright but rebellious son; even a sour, unpleasant family servant who stays on despite the hard times. The author, the daughter of Evita lyricist Tim Rice, writes pleasantly, even lavishly at times, but it's impossible for Secrets to rise above such clichés.