title: Emma's Secret
author:  Barbara Taylor Bradford 
description: It has been nearly 25 years since Bradford made her name with the female rags-to-riches saga A Woman of Substance, the first in a trilogy of novels that concluded with 1988's To Be the Best. Gambling that there is still life to be squeezed out of the story of indomitable super-survivor Emma Harte and her descendants, Bradford returns to the chase with this present-day sequel. The novel opens in 2001 at Pennistone Royal, Emma's magnificent country estate in Yorkshire, now occupied by her granddaughter Paula's family. Paula heads the Knightsbridge store, flagship of the nationwide Harte chain, and her grown daughters, Linnet and Tessa, work there. A young American, Evan Hughes, with an uncanny Harte family resemblance, appears one day seeking a job. She's hired at once, since Linnet needs help with an upcoming fashion spectacular, a retrospective featuring Emma's couture wardrobe. Linnet's cousin Gideon, who works for the Harte newspapers, is smitten with Evan, and soon the mystery of her background is of concern, especially when it's discovered that Evan's grandmother had a close relationship with Emma. The overwhelming amount of descriptive detail clothing, interior decor, food and drink slows down the narrative, but such Victorian props as a decorative locked box, a key taped behind a photograph and long-lost diaries provide mild suspense. The saga was already losing steam with To Be the Best, and this fourth installment is further diluted. Lacking the dynamic impact of the original, it will be best appreciated by those with an irresistible desire to follow the further adventures of the Harte clan.<br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: PUBLIC SECRETS
  
  BY NORA ROBERTS
  
  Synopsis:
  
  Little six-year-old Emma hears her two-year-old brother crying in the
  
  night during a party given by their rock star father. When she goes in
  
  to comfort the child she witnesses his murder. Rushing from the room she
  
  falls down the stairs sustaining a broken arm and a concussion which
  
  causes her to forget what she saw that night. But throughout the next
  
  twenty years what happened that night will haunt Emma and her family and
  
  the police detective who works on the case; in Emma's dreams and finally
  
  in her waking life. This is a good suspense thriller with some romance
  
  on the side and some explicit sex. There is a good overview of life
  
  from the sixties to the nineties as it might be seen from a musically
  
  oriented and artistic family.
  
  All rights reserved.
  
  Copyright 0 1990 by Nora Roberts.
  
  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
  
  any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
  
  or b