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