SECRET TRUTHS
READERS’ FAVORITES REVIEWS:
Review #1:
Secret Truths by Roberta Seret is the fourth installment in the Transylvanian Trilogy series. The story is set in the United States, Europe, and South America. Anca, a young doctor from Romania, has relocated to New York to avoid getting arrested for giving antibiotics to Gypsies and non-communists. She left behind her husband Petre and is raising her daughter alone in the US. She wants to do a clinical trial on how the intake of nitrates in food or water could aggravate asthma in children. Coincidentally, Charles, her friend and colleague’s boyfriend and the son of aristocratic Germans, is interested in nitrates as weapons. Thrilling events follow, where these fictional characters mix with historical persons like right-wing fascist Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie and Argentine rebel Che Guevara. The story will take readers to a desert in South America and reveal the covert activities of the CIA as the US tries to stop the spread of communism in the region.
Roberta Seret’s Secret Truths is a fast-paced and character-driven political thriller where factual events are woven into the lives of the novel’s protagonists. Seret is a gifted storyteller who explores intriguing political ideas and uses them in an international setting. She weaves a fascinating story around factual events flawlessly. Any reader who has a good grasp of history should find the twists and turns of the plot believable and riveting. I found Anca’s character to be fully developed and highly interesting. I haven’t read the first three installments in this series but I got a glimpse of her friends’ lives and the other members of the Poets of their Lives, which I find fascinating. This is a thought-provoking novel that could completely change the way we read our history books. Highly recommended!
Review #2:
In Secret Truths, author Roberta Seret has lifted the veil on a raft of truths of which most of us were unaware. While it is common knowledge that many Nazi war criminals fled to South America after World War II, what very few people knew then is that they were not only protected but also employed by the United States. Citing the lesser of two evils, the Americans were focused on preventing the spread of Communism throughout their southern neighbors. The other main thread of the book in parallel is the use of both good and evil in the use of nitrates. They were thought to relieve asthma in children but the properties of nitrates are also utilized in the making of explosives. The author introduces us to two women, Anca and Vera, both connected to men who are on the fringes of the cover-up and the fight against dictators and Communism. Through their eyes, we learn about the current events of the time, including events in Cuba and much about the life of Che Guevara, Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon, and later Bolivia.
I love books where I learn new facts. Secret Truths by Roberta Seret delivers these in spades, from the political situation at the end of World War II to the conflicting properties of minerals to information on the observatory telescopes in the Atacama Desert, installed by a Swiss conglomerate to study the stars. The author’s descriptions of the desert are lyrical, so much so that you feel you are there, gazing up at the heavens. We meet characters from many different cultures, among them French, German, and Romanian. I particularly liked the ending where we learn not only what happened to the real historical people in the story, but those who are fictional. It was heartwarming to learn the fates of the four friends who had escaped from repressive dictatorships. Secret Truths packs in so much; part thriller, part factual, part informative, and very entertaining. If you are curious as to how countries behaved and the secrets they kept hidden from the public, then this is a must-read.
Review #3:
In the thriller Secret Truths by Roberta Seret, Anca, a Romanian doctor in New York City, reflects on her past in Transylvania and her journey to America with her daughter. Reuniting with her friend Vera, also a doctor, Anca learns about Charles von Beck, a chemist with familial ties to the French Resistance and a connection to Klaus Barbie, a Nazi war criminal in Bolivia. As Anca grasps the politics surrounding Vera and Charles’ relationship and their involvement in a revenge plot against Barbie, she questions the morality of supporting anti-communist initiatives, particularly as she learns about Barbie’s protection under Operation Condor, a CIA effort in South America. Vera’s exploration of Che Guevara’s legacy and the CIA’s collaboration with Barbie only compound this moral reckoning, building up to Anca’s realization of plans to capture Barbie with the aid of influential figures in French politics and the Resistance.
I like how Roberta Seret equally balances Anca’s life as a mother and a physician with the tornado of spycraft that swirls around her in Secret Truths. Seret does an excellent job of harnessing the undercurrent of political machinations and how ulterior motives foster unsavory alliances and ultimately change the course of history. This does not change the fact that a little girl named Cindy needs asthma treatment or that exhibitions of paintings will carry on normally in Brooklyn Heights, small components of everyday life that feed into the balance that Seret so skillfully executes. I love that Anca’s past is steeped in moral ambiguity; a type of mixed blessing where even the thought of her father will elicit tears while she holds her little daughter, whose own father could down the line have Sandi feeling the same. The symbolism that Seret conveys about inherited, generational emotional trauma is deep and intelligent, and makes this series one that you still think about once the novel is finished. Very highly recommended.
Review #4:
Secret Truths by Roberta Seret is a gripping blend of fact and fiction that takes readers on a globe-spanning journey through some of the darkest and most complex moments of 20th-century history. The novel delves into Cold War conspiracies and revolutionary fervor, exploring how historical forces shaped lives across continents. Interweaving real figures such as Che Guevara, Lee Harvey Oswald, Fidel Castro, and President Kennedy with the fictional lives of Anca, a Romanian-born doctor in New York, and her friend Vera, Secret Truths builds a kaleidoscopic narrative of espionage, identity, and moral conflict. As the two women pursue their destinies, they become entangled in the machinations of global powers, uncovering shocking truths and confronting the stark dichotomy between governmental agendas and human survival. Drawing from Seret’s Transylvanian Trilogy, this novel enhances its historical depth with emotional stakes and existential tension, ultimately crafting a story where truth is both revealed and reshaped through coincidence and conviction.
Author Roberta Seret has crafted a fascinating tale with a keen eye for blending historical detail with realistic emotional portrayals, and this has resulted in a highly readable fusion of fact and fiction that breathes life into history’s most controversial figures. The array of chosen historical figures is varied and addictively interesting, and Seret has a brilliant way of highlighting unusual and lesser-known details and then weaving them seamlessly into the story so that you never know quite what’s real and what isn’t. This unnerving sense of tension burrows its way into every bit of narrative for a structure that’s daring, layered, and relentlessly thought-provoking at every turn. On top of this, the characterization is just as realistic for the fictional figures as for those reimagined from the pages of history. The female protagonists are compelling voices in a male-dominated political world, offering rare insight and emotional depth for readers to connect with. Overall, Secret Truths is a timely reminder of how real historical atrocities and heroics echo through generations, and I would not hesitate to recommend it.
Review #5:
In Secret Truths by Roberta Seret, fact meets fiction and left meets right when Che Guevara confronts Klaus Barbie. This is the last installment in the Transylvanian trilogy series. It follows Anca and Vera, university friends who meet once again as adults in New York. Vera and Anca meet daily and talk about politics relating to the post-World War II era. This includes decisions the United States made while hiding the truth from the public, such as the CIA employing Klaus Barbie to implement its anti-communist policy during the Cold War. The tale also has a romantic side, with Anca longing for her husband, who stayed behind in Transylvania, but she meets Mark and develops feelings for him.
Roberta Seret’s Secret Truths combines political fiction with some actual events. It is advisable that readers know their Second World War history and what happened to Nazi criminals. The novel is written in the third person and narrates history as if telling a story. The author varies her account between speculation and reality, and one can easily be swept away by an alternative world that might just have existed. The book fits more into the genre of historical romance and concludes with a summary of the real and fictional characters, explaining their fates.
Review #6:
Secret Truths by Roberta Seret is the fourth book in the popular Transylvanian Trilogy series. Secret Truths follows Anca Rodescu as she tries to build a life for herself and her baby daughter, Sandi. Alone in New York, with her husband still fighting in Romania, Anca must raise Sandi by herself and juggle a demanding career in medicine. While working in an Internship-Residency program in Pediatrics at New York Hospital she runs into her old friend, Vera, from medical school in Transylvania. Vera regales Anca with thrilling tales of her partner, Charles von Beck. His father, Colonel von Beck, was one of the aristocrats who tried to assassinate Hitler in World War II. Charles regularly visits his father and mother who are settled in Bolivia and slowly but surely becomes involved in the political espionage prevalent in South America.
Secret Truths is an exciting mix of fact and fiction as Roberta Seret exposes the collusion of governments with the ultimate goal of stopping communism. The saying goes: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” This is the case in the dealings between the Central Intelligence Agency and its many foreign spies. Roberta expertly illuminates real historical events and facts by incorporating fictional characters and building a world around them that’s on the edge of crumbling. The characters, historical figures, and government organizations line up synchronistically for perhaps one of the most significant cross-over interactions in history between the Marxist revolutionary, Che Guevara, and the Butcher of Lyon, Klaus Barbie, a Nazi war criminal. This is a must-read for any history buff who’s interested in the dark side of the CIA or the anti-establishment Che Guevara.
Review #7:
In the dark days leading up to the conclusion of the Second World War, several Nazi sympathizers escaped justice. They found their way to the relatively safe continent of South America. One of these individuals is Klaus Barbie, a notorious war criminal better known by the moniker “The Butcher of Lyon.” Despite the valiant efforts of some of the survivors of his atrocities, Barbie has remained elusive until a group of people motivated by a shared tragedy take it upon themselves to capture the infamous war criminal. Only time will tell if their plans are successful in Secret Truths by Roberta Seret.
Espionage and romance come together in Roberta Seret’s novel. Secret Truths features a cast of factual and fictional characters whose conversations flow so seamlessly that it takes an astute reader to tell them apart. Seret links the subplots impressively well, taking famous characters from critical historical moments and putting them in intriguing situations to build up the suspense. With the bulk of the story focusing on the details of the plan to grab Barbie and the reasons why previous attempts failed so woefully, the author balances out the rest of the story with the chapters focusing on the emerging love triangle between Anca, Mark, and Petre. They prove to be just as immersive as the reader draws their conclusion on the rationale behind Anca’s decisions and how they impact her plans for a family. Seret’s Secret Truths will appeal to historical fiction purists with an eye for detail.