The Secret Diary of Helen Blackstone – by Michele Pariza Wacek

This book is a really quick read and I enjoyed it! I was disappointed it ended so quickly! Helen’s two weeks of diary entries are fun to read and the Cook and Gertrude are wonderful additions to the story line. A great, easy read mystery! Also, at the end of the book is a wonderful “Sneak Peek” of “It Began With a Lie”, it looks like one I will want to read!-Janell

The Secret Diary of Helen Blackstone begins in May of 1929, with Helen being given the gift of a leather journal on the train platform. She does not want a journal. Her Mother wrote in a journal—until she went mad.

Helen is being picked up at the train station by her Father. He looks small. They are waiting for her bother, Edward. He wants to be called Henry now, their Dad continues to call him Edward instead.

Where is the car? Why is Father driving them home in a carriage with paint peeling and plow horses? Wait! Why is Father going to this house, this house where Mother went Mad? People in town call this “The Mad House”. Helen thought Dad had sold this house? Why is Father so stern that they do not go into the cellar?

Helen sees her Mother in her nightmare. Why is she saying Henry must be protected? Protected from what? He is in danger. Helen is feeling uneasy, is happy to see Cook and Gertrude, she has missed them.

Helen keeps writing in her diary, even though she didn’t want a diary.

Henry begins sleepwalking-what is he talking about? If he can’t find it, he’ll be punished? Is their house haunted? Is their Mother talking to them through their nightmares?