The Secrets

When sex is sold there's only room for one selfish person and here it's the woman who's paying who gets to be selfish. It's the 1980s and Cathy Harrison helps to set up London's most active male escort agency in the pre-internet age. The Park Agency sells sex to women. Cathy and her boss Patricia Roberts bring a new approach to a very old profession. They reach deep into the minds of their clients and find out what their secret fantasies are. The Park Agency always aims for satisfied customers. As the business grows more and more tastes are catered for and this leads to the disintegration of their star escort Ken in a drug fuelled murder with an unexpected ending. The story realistically portrays working in a successful male escort agency and shows what happens when sex is sold in a largely unreported market. Nobody understands why Cathy makes Ken her favourite. They can't understand why she lets him get away with so many things in a business that treats its staff in a very harsh way. The Park Agency doesn't use pep talks to get the escorts to follow the rules. They use violence and coercion if any of the escorts steps out of line. Everyone thinks that Cathy treats Ken so well because he is so good at his work. All the clients love him. He just has to smile at you and you would smile back. You feel better and you do not know why but you also do not care why. When Ken smiles at you all of a sudden your world is a better place. Until the time you've paid for him runs out but don't worry Cathy can book him again for you. Or at least she could before he goes off the rails. The Secrets reveals what women really think about sex. It deals candidly with what women want when they don't have to please anyone else but themselves. Anything they do remains their little secret or at least a secret shared with Cathy who is always only too happy to provide them with more of what they want. The Park Agency brings a lot of happiness into a lot of women's lives. Not everyone involved emerges unscathed though. Some get corroded by the process and some get very badly hurt and worse. The 1980s was a time when women empowered themselves to make decisions about buying sex without feeling that they need anyone else's approval. The novel deals with issues of control and sexuality. More importantly it also shows what happens with sex when nobody says no.