Secrets cover

Secrets

by Paul Brodeur

Paul Brodeur has been one of the nation's leading and most outspoken environmental journalists for thirty years. Now, with a novelist's flair for storytelling and the keen eye of a veteran journalist, he turns his attention to the experiences of his own life, weaving family secrets that were kept from him, secrets that he kept as a counterintelligence agent, and secrets he uncovered as an investigative reporter into the tapestry of the Cold War. He focuses on the climate of secrecy and suspicion that fostered the deception and wrongdoing he has spent a career investigating and exposing. Brodeur crosses swords with the military, the CIA, the FBI, and the State Department; tangles with greedy corporate officials, callous industry physicians, dishonest bureaucrats, corrupt consultants, and hypocritical politicians; and is befriended and helped by some of the nation's leading scientists and medical researchers. The result is a compelling narrative that takes issue with much of the Cold War's self-congratulatory mythology and its disturbing legacy that too often allows individual freedom to be curtailed in the name of national security.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?