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In Brad Meltzers latest, The House of Secrets, our narrator, Hazel Nash, wakes up in a hospital after eight days in a coma and is told she has been in a devastating car accident in which her father died. As she recovers, she learns her brain’s amygdala has been damaged: she no longer has a sense of taste and she has no memory of any relationships. As such, she fits the unreliable narrator role, since she cannot dredge up memories, she can only surmise. As readers, we are forced to rely on her memories which are faulty at best. Hazel’s nick-name is Haze and haze is very much the vibe of the book.

When Hazel wakes up in the hospital, she becomes immediately aware of FBI agent Trevor Rabkin who is waiting in the hallway for her to wake up. He claims to have worked with her father, but he has questions about her father’s activities, his demise and he questions Hazel’s role and that of her brother Skip in all that has happened. His character feels confrontational and adversarial. There is something to be turned up, but Hazel has no idea what that might be.

Her brother, Skip Nash, is in her (new) life and is able to convince her that he is in fact her brother. Skip is able to fill Hazel in on certain facts about Jack Nash, their father. Jack Nash traveled the globe researching and staring in a conspiracy TV show named House of Secrets which enjoyed decades of popularity. From a young age, Skip traveled with his dad as Jack globe-trotted for his TV show. So his relationship with their dad is much different than Hazel’s ever was.

The tale centers on an historic conspiracy story about Benedict Arnold’s bible, and Jack Nash’s search for it and for pages missing from it. Nothing is as it seems, neither Skip nor Rabkin are telling all they know. Hazel must renegotiate all relationships and work to understand who she is and who she was. I won’t be giving away much to note she dumps hot sauce on her food since some sensation seems to her to be better than none.

Did I want to keep reading? Oddly enough, since I am often put off by unreliable narrators, yes I did. Meltzer keeps you guessing even more than usual.