Tuesday, March 01, 2016

The Lake House by Kate Morton ~ Book Review

The Edevane family is a wealthy family from the 1930's who seem to have it all.  Eleanor and Anthony have a love that others hope for, a family of 3 lovely daughters and now the long desired son, a gorgeous home on well hidden lake with extensive gardens.  They live a charmed life.  That is until tragedy strikes.  As they are hosting their yearly Midsummer party they're precious baby boy disappears seemingly into thin air.  After months of searching, with no real clues to go upon, it turns into a unsolved mystery.

Seventy years later, Sadie Sparrow, a detective with the Met police is taking a leave of absence from work and visiting her father in Cornwall. An upsetting missing persons case of her own has yielded unsatisfactory results and though the police have closed the case there is something about it that keeps eating at her.  While out on a run, she stumbles upon the old Edevane estate, now abandoned and overgrown, and the unsolved mystery of the missing Theo naturally intrigues and draws her.  She can't help but look into it further.   Finding out that one of the daughters of the Edevanes is none other than the very famous mystery writer, Alice Edevane, and that she is still alive Sadie tries to make contact with her.  But Alice Edevane is not inclined to respond to the letters.  She has her own secrets to hide about that night and the last thing she wants is a detective poking around.

This was my first Kate Morton book and I have to say I really enjoyed it.  The way this author develops and builds plot is amazing and it made this a really enjoyable page turning read.  Her descriptions of the estate and gardens and the time period which the family lives through were rich and detailed. I really felt like I could see it in my mind's eye.  The story takes place over two time lines and two different missing persons stories are involved but it is never confusing.  As the author builds the plot and reveals clues I never guessed the reveal of the mystery.  Though on that note, the reveal where they put the clues together seemed rushed to me and the reactions of the characters seemed very subdued, somehow, considering the situation.  Without giving away the story, there is one theme in the book that I wasn't nuts about because it's not a favourite thing for me to read about with my Christian perspective  but I thought it was handled well and,after all, this is not a "Christian" story and therefore has no obligation to live up to my sensibilities and convictions.  Consequences of the character's actions were not brushed under the rug or glamorized and I appreciated that in the story.  I am looking forward to reading more of this author's novels.

I gave this one a 9.5/10



9 comments:

nikkipolani said...

Thanks for this terrific review, Susanne. I'm amazed you've time to do it with a wedding looming! Kate Morton certainly does have a vivid way of setting the scene. It's been a long time since I read The Lake House. I read a few others, but they are really long and bittersweet.

Barbara H. said...

I've read one Kate Morton book and thought her writing was excellent, but there was a soap-opera-ish plot element and one supremely vulgar word in it, so I have never tried her again. I ended up not even reviewing that one. Made me both sad and mad, because otherwise I would have loved it.

Faith said...

I've never heard of this author but I plan on checking out this book because, Susanne....you KNOW I love me a good mystery!! OH boy.....i am in the middle of one good one now (not a mystery but a GOOD one) and I have 2 books from the library on my "to read" shelf....yikes....I better stop going on FB and get some reading done! this book The Lake House sounds like a GOOD one!! Am gonna look for it. thanks for a great review. And no, we should NOT be surprised at secular authors' writing. I've learned to just skim over and overlook the bad language, etc. because really.....to them it is nothing bad. If it is of a Satanic or sexually graphic nature I won't read it though.

Karen said...

This is on my list of books to read, because I've enjoyed her other books. The Forgotten Garden is my fave. Great review, now I need to push this up higher on my list.

Deb J. in Utah said...

Sounds like an interesting book. Wasn't there a movie of the same name a few years back? I think there was. I wonder if the movie is a film adaptation of the book. Thanks for the review. Enjoy what's left of the week!

Sarah at SmallWorld said...

I can't wait to read this! I've loved all of Kate Morton's novels. I have to wait until fall to read this, as it's our book club's October choice.

Susan @ Reading World said...

I keep meaning to read something by this author. This seems a good one to start with. Great review!

Elizabeth said...

I LOVE Kate Morton's books.

This book was no exception to her wonderful books....loved it.

My all-time favorite of hers is THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN. That was my first book by Ms. Morton, and I was hooked ever since.

I hope you get to read THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN too.

I am stopping by from the Saturday Book Review Post.

ENJOY your day.

Elizabeth
Silver's Reviews
My Blog

Elizabeth said...

Very nice blog.

Going to follow if I can.

Elizabeth
Silver's Reviews
My Blog