The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson

The uneven latest from Baker (Keeping the House) poses questions about adoption and family heritage. In a small town in Minnesota in 2015, Cecily Larson, 94, breaks her hip and, confined to a hospital bed, realizes time may be running out to share the secret she’s kept for her entire life, which stems from her childhood. At age seven, Cecily was taken from a Chicago orphanage to be trained as a bareback rider in a traveling circus. Baker makes clear that the secret, which is revealed to the reader later on, will impact Cecily’s widowed daughter Liz, her divorced granddaughter Molly, and her teenage grandson Caden, who has just started a research project on his family’s DNA. At the same time in Florida and North Carolina, members of another branch of the Larson family are wondering about their own mysterious family history and start taking DNA tests. Cecily’s circus life provides plenty of colorful drama, but subplots involving Molly’s lingering ambivalence about her divorce years earlier and Liz’s cancer diagnosis are tied up too quickly in the rushed final act, and the conclusion is too convenient to be convincing. There’s too much clutter in this family saga. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (Feb.)