Days: A Secret in Salem

I finished reading Sherri Anderson’s “A Secret in Salem” on Thursday, which is a novel with characters from Days of Our Lives. Here are my thoughts on it. Intentionally I have avoided comments on the book so not to sway this entry. This will have story information, so if you haven’t read it and don’t want to know don’t read the rest of this post.

This book takes place in Europe and we see those Salemites who have been transplanted to the other side of the pond. Shawn, Belle, and little Claire are living together on Fancy Face IV. While Shawn thinks things are smooth sailing, Belle has a secret. She ran into former husband Philip Kiriakis while they were traveling and there was an awkward moment when Philip kissed her. Belle was horrified and beat off Philip, but she was scared to tell Shawn what happened. They hadn’t been intimate regularly as Belle felt uncomfortable lying to her husband. During this story, Belle discovers she is pregnant. Shawn is thrilled and eventually everything is wonderful between them as Shawn was not at all upset over what happened with Philip.

We also see Belle’s parents John and Marlena. They are in a beautiful mansion in Switzerland. He is still paralyzed, so things are not as wonderful as they could be. Marlena becomes attracted to a doctor named Blake, but nothing comes of it. On the request of Shawn, she goes to Monte Carlo and that’s where John surprises her. As a gift to the John and Marlena fans, John gets back his motor skills. He gets a beautiful suite for Marlena and they become intimate again after two years. That was nice, but of course it would have been better to see than read.

Abby and Chelsea also appear and are part of the fourth estate. Abby is a reporter, and Chelsea is taking pictures for the Spectator. They are in Monte Carlo for a big party doing the paparazzi thing. As fate would have it, what they saw and photographed saved Jack and Jennifer’s newspaper. In this story, Jack and Jennifer are happily living in London.

In the course of this story, we meet a brand new family the Gaines. There is Olivia Gaines, the mother, Richard Gaines, the father, and their three children, sons Jackson (a womanizer) and Chance (a gay man) and daughter Charlotte (Charley). Olivia and Charley are in a serious car accident, which initially masks Olivia’s murder. Shawn ends up saving her life, with first aid while waiting for the ambulance and later donates blood to her, as they are both B negative.

Charley though isn’t whom she seems as by the end of the novel, we find out that she isn’t Olivia and Richard’s child, but John and Marlena’s and Stefano’s doing. She was created in the same way as Rex and Cassie. Richard, a financial wheeler-dealer who ends up being a fraud, who ran a ponzi scheme also ends up dead. So 18-year-old Charley while still having her brothers may feel the need to get closer to John and Marlena in the future.

I see this book as an alternative universe and not true canon. The story takes place after Alice Horton has died. On screen, we were told that Shane Donovan left the ISA to be with Kim in California, so him working in London for the organization doesn’t match that continuity. Also Jack is now on a walkabout in Australia, so Jennifer and Jack don’t have the life mentioned in this book.

I plan on reading the next novel in the series; as for a “beach read” it was entertaining. There was enough in it, that someone who didn’t know much about Days wouldn’t be too confused, but not so much information to bore people who do know the characters involved in the story. How it was written lends it to more stories as there needs to be more of a resolution in regards to Charley.