※   德国出版社Aufbao高额拍下版权，法国Denoel以及荷兰Xander出版社都以pre-empt方式买下版权。英国由Granta出版社最近出版，已经获得不少好评（请看下面书评），意大利由Newton Compton出版，土耳其由 Altin Bilek Yayinlari出版。
※   适合喜欢《香水》的读者，本书关于18世纪意大利佛罗伦斯的一位神秘蜡像雕塑家——他有一个黑暗的背景，特别喜欢创造令人毛骨悚然的作品。他被皇子邀请委托作品，没想到接了这份工作揭开了身边所有人的秘密。
 
故事在1701年开始，蜡像雕塑家Zummo是一位身体虚弱的老年人。他出现在法国的一家女修道院，拜访一位Marguerite-Louise of Orleans，说他知道关于她女儿的事。这位女士曾经托斯卡纳皇子的妻子。
 
1691年的夏天，Zummo收到托斯卡纳皇子的邀请来到了佛罗伦斯，正式委托他成为宫廷的御用雕塑家。他见到Zummo的时候，就告诉Zummo关于他和妻子之间的故事。他的妻子是法国人，他们是被逼婚的。妻子总是利用言辞以及行为伤害皇子，人们认为她简直是疯子。但是，皇子还是很爱她，从见到她的第一面就爱上她了。但是，他的妻子总是以恶劣的态度对待他。最后，妻子还是离开他，回到法国。Zummo自己的故事也是悲伤的，当初离开西西里也是为了逃脱他的过去。
 
皇子私底下请Zummo为他创作一个私人作品，雕塑一个真人同样大小的女人，而最重要的，一定要为他保密。他希望这个女人是最美丽的，或许因为他自己的妻子多么抗拒他，婚姻多么失败。Zummo决定，如果要做好这个雕塑，他需要利用真真实人体来做模子。幸好，他的外科医师朋友给他找到了一个尸体，是个刚去世的女孩，她脖子背后竟然被刻了一个奇怪的图像。
 
在佛罗伦斯，Zummo认识了一个女孩，Faustina，一个跟他一样充满神秘感女孩。他们互相相爱，而有一天，Faustina告诉Zummo她的秘密：其实皇子的妻子就是她的母亲，她是私生子。听到她的故事，Zummo忽然有个灵感，在皇子的雕塑里面隐藏一个孩子。这个孩子从外面看不出来，只有Zummo知道。这会是一个美丽又充满冲突的作品。他决定这个雕塑会给皇子他一生中从来不会得到的东西。到了送雕塑给皇子的那一天到来，皇子看到就认为是在太完美了，比他还想象中完美。
 
在宫廷里，常常有一位名叫Stufa的僧侣出现，他是皇子母亲的「心灵顾问」。他对Zummo非常不友善，从一开始就跟他对立。Zummo有一天回到家，发现他被洗劫了，但是唯一被偷的东西是Faustina的素描。他得知进入他屋子的人是几个僧侣。Zummo深感到Faustina可能会有生命危险，于是请Faustina先找个地方躲避一下。Zummo得知这些僧侣跟 Stufa属于同一个教会，并发现Stufa是那个女尸体的杀手。Zummo找上Stufa，跟他说他知道女孩是他杀的，Stufa竟然跟Zummo说他跟Faustina睡过。
 
Zummo回到Faustina的老镇找她，也知道Stufa会跟踪他。最后，Stufa的确跟上来，而两人挣扎后Zummo杀了Stufa。虽然如此，Zummo最后还是决定离开Faustina，因为不希望再连累她。
 
回到故事的开始，皇子的妻子回到Faustina的小镇找自己的女儿。但是，她却得知Faustina9年前生产中去世了。Zummo当时离开她的时候，她已经怀孕了。
 
书评：
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/758a1fb6-807a-11e2-aed5-00144feabdc0.html
 
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/secrecy-by-rupert-thomson-8535077.html
 
'Thomson's novels have met with a remarkable uniformity of critical acclaim... Delivered via Thomson's habitual Rolls-Royce prose, Secrecy builds to a page-turning climax' -Guardian
 
'This is a book that scores top marks for atmosphere, for the way in which the smell, and look, of pre-18th century Florence is conveyed, for the cinematic sense of menace that lurks round every street corner, every candle-lit arras, and every formal garden. The description of the method by which Zummo works for 30 hours to take a plaster cast of the corpse, and the depiction of the final object, with its own hair, and glass eyes from Murano, is chillingly brilliant and sinister. A superb depiction of a pre-Enlightenment world, shimmering with superstitions, repression, and incomprehension, and a plot that really is masterly.'
--Financial Times
 
'Rupert Thomson's bewitching narrative is suffused with the stuff of dreams and nightmares. It's also intensely atmospheric, and Thomson is as superb on changes of light and weather as he is on Florence's architectural gems.' -Daily Mail
 
'An impressive historical adventure written in an accomplished prose... Thomson excels in suggesting a strong sense of place ... He is also determinedly inventive, succeeding in finding new ways to describe weather, nature, and the workings of the human mind ... this is a rich and intriguing work by a writer in command of his material. There is a pleasurable phrase to be found on every page.' --Literary Review
 
'Scene after scene trembles with breath-stopping tension on the edge of bliss or dread. No one else writes quite like this in Britain today. Newcomers to his work who open this box of secrets will hurry to snatch others from the shelf.' --Independent
 
'Thomson richly and compellingly imagines the life of the Sicilian wax sculptor Gaetano Zummo ... [it is] in his eye for the gothic and uncanny that Thomson excels.' -Sunday Times
 
'Like a luxurious art-house film, seducing you with its beautifully paced, beautifully framed images ... If this easy, elegant prose is nothing more than surface, then it is gratifying that Secrecy also has depths, even chasms ... I don t doubt there is research here, but it is Thomson s subconscious that rules the past in this book, and I bend the knee before it.' --Independent on Sunday
 
'Thomson transcends genre pretty effortlessly. He doesn't scrimp on the many satisfactions of a historical novel and he provides an unstintingly gripping thriller plot into the bargain. But what lifts Secrecy to a more rarefied level altogether is the visionary imagination that overlays the scrupulously worked structures those genres demand. It informs the brilliance of Thomson's characterisation, from the morbid monomania of a tormented Cosimo, to the brutish, coiled savagery of the Dominican enforcer Stufa, to the ghostly sadness of a neglected child. Along with a particular poetic gift for laying the exquisite alongside the visceral, it enables him to evoke Florence's peculiarly sinister magic to perfection, and to thread together the real, the historical and the purely imagined with such loving attention that I defy readers to see the join. Indeed, the join becomes irrelevant.' --Guardian
 
'Thomson's writing is pitch-perfect here. His prose is as clear and limpid as water, his ear finely attuned to the timbre of the period though mercifully free from archaisms, his characters drawn with subtlety and wit. The details are pin-sharp, but sparing enough not to weigh down the story. Instead, there is a mesmerising quality to the unfolding of the narratives and a sense of ellipsis that keeps it hovering on the threshold of reality and calls to mind the dreamlike flavour of Alessandro Baricco's Silk. Secrecy is beautifully plotted, too; not a scene or an exchange wasted, as the characters' secret pasts are glimpsed in fragments and eventually woven together towards a fleeting resolution. Thomson is a writer of exceptional skill, though his work has perhaps not been celebrated as widely as it deserves. Secrecy may be the book to change that. It is surely his finest novel to date: exquisitely crafted, with the power to possess and unsettle the reader in equal measure.' --Observer
 
'A novel rich as the past it conjures up, weaving a story as playful and disturbing as the strange wax sculptures that its hero gives life to.' --Sarah Dunant