Most of the settings in Secrets and Lies are fictional: Carol’s café, the Linden House art gallery, the apartments, Paul’s school. Two sites are real: the Roy Thomson Hall where Carol and Patrick attend the symphony, and the Toronto Island parks.
I wrote the island scenes with some help from Google Maps, but in 2013 my husband and I were in Toronto and visited the island parks. Like Carol and Joey, we took a water taxi to the islands and rode back on the regular ferry. I took hundreds of pictures, to capture the feel, and although we visited in mid-August and Carol and Joey went in September, they may have seen things like this:
![Toronto Island gardens](https://i0.wp.com/janetsketchley.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/078a.jpg?resize=448%2C336)
Some of the Toronto Island gardens [photo credit: Janet Sketchley]
![This is the path they walked along before the guy stole Carol's bag. If you walk far enough, it becomes a boardwalk. This is the concrete wall they'd have leaned on to watch the paddleboarder.](https://i0.wp.com/janetsketchley.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/141a.jpg?resize=448%2C336)
This is the path they walked along before the guy stole Carol’s bag. If you walk far enough, it becomes a boardwalk. This is the concrete wall they’d have leaned on to watch the paddleboarder.
![Plenty of activity on the water -- the paddleboarder they watched may have looked like this.](https://i0.wp.com/janetsketchley.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/117.jpg?resize=424%2C336)
Plenty of activity on the water — the paddleboarder they watched may have looked like this. [photo credit: Janet Sketchley]
![This is the regular passenger ferry to/from the Island parks, with the CN Tower in the background.](https://i0.wp.com/janetsketchley.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/502a.jpg?resize=329%2C448)
This is the regular passenger ferry to/from the Island parks, with the CN Tower in the background. [photo credit: Janet Sketchley]
![Roy Thomson Hall... sadly, we didn't get inside to enjoy a performance.](https://i0.wp.com/janetsketchley.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/509a.jpg?resize=420%2C336)
Roy Thomson Hall. What an interesting shape! Sadly, we didn’t get inside to enjoy a performance. [photo credit: Janet Sketchley]
Beautiful pictures – thanks for sharing.
It was fun to actually trace some of Carol’s fictional steps!