Breaking the Trust
By Lucy Clare 

     The Palmer family gathers after the death of the patriarch, Jack, aka “The Gaffer,” to learn of their secret inheritance---their father’s illegitimate son Titus Palmer. Jack’s widow Clattie, who has kept her husband’s past from their children, shocks Hugh, Ralph, and Pippa when she reveals she and the Gaffer have been involved in the lives of Titus, his wife Jane, and their two children, Summer and Alby.

     These unfolding events test the meaning of the word trust, as the members of the Palmer family find their lives and their loyalties changing the more they allow Titus and his family into their world.

     When Titus’ Aunt Monica leaves him a building, struggling caterer Hugh (who’s carrying on a secret affair outside his passionless marriage) successfully persuades him to open a restaurant named Palmers. Older brother Ralph will have nothing to do with Titus and his family. Meanwhile, Pippa finds that joining a religious order doesn’t leave her much room to think about Titus’ family, until she finds the life too restrictive and returns to nurse her mother Clattie.

     As her children’s carefully constructed lives begin to unravel, the resilient Clattie revels in her freedom away from her repressive, hypercritical late husband and makes a life of her own with a charming older gentleman. The tensions among her children become almost unbearable as more and more secrets and alliances come to light.

     This is a book for people who enjoy complex, thought-provoking stories about what really matters in life.