Secrecy is the dominant theme of Seven for a Secret, and those secrets are enclosed in, and closely associated with, a series of houses. Interestingly, as the covers of Holt novels have moved from showing a windswept, forbidding mansion toward portraits of the imposing heroines, the houses in the novels have proliferated to carry a complex symbolic load. Lavender House, actually a cottage, houses the "genteel poverty" left to Frederica's mother after her profligate father's death and her husband's desertion when the child was one year old. The bitterness and anger never leave her mother. They are fueled by the view of Cedar Hall, the grand house where she was raised, which she sees constantly from her windows. The Hall now houses the nouveau riche Carter family.

The contrast between the two residences exerts an effect that is nearly physical.

After a dispute with Mrs. Carter about who...