The lake house A novel

Review by Booklist Review

In the latest from Morton, secrets from the past come to light in the present, a theme that is the author's specialty. Alice Edevane is a teenage novelist in love in 1930s Cornwall. Loeanneth (literally, the lake house) is a place made for storytelling, with magical woods and fairy fields, all totally lost on her stern mother, Eleanor. Seventy years later, Sadie Sparrow is visiting her grandfather after getting too close to a case, a no-no for a London detective. Sadie stumbles upon Loeanneth, frozen in time, and throws herself into the mystery of the abandoned house, using her considerable professional skills and a helpful librarian. She tries to involve a native mystery novelist, A. E. Edevane, who has not been back to Cornwall in years. Missing babies, maternal sacrifice, and secrets, secrets, secrets Morton offers generous clues, only to peel back deeper layers just when the truth seems close. There is a procedural element to the story for traditional mystery readers, and it is not short on heart-wrenching choices and rich characters. The ending is a bit neat, but after all Morton puts the characters through, they've earned it.--Maguire, Susan Copyright 2015 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Bestselling storyteller Morton (The Secret Keeper) excels in this mystery set against the gothic backdrop of 1930s England. In Cornwall, the wealthy Edevane family prepares for its annual midsummer ball at Loenneth, their isolated estate. That night, teenager Alice Edevane is lingering near the nursery when someone kidnaps the cherished Edevane son, Theo; despite a lengthy investigation, he is never found. The story moves forward to 2003 London, where Det. Sgt. Sadie Sparrow is suspended after speaking to the media about a missing-person case, recently closed, that haunts her. Sparrow seeks refuge with her grandfather in Cornwall. On her first morning run there, she finds the now-dilapidated Loenneth mansion deep in the woods. Curious, Sparrow peers through the windows into tumbledown rooms abandoned in haste long ago. She begins to investigate the 70-year-old Edevane case with help from the Cornwall locals, including a retired copper who was there in 1933 when Theo disappeared. Sparrow locates the now-elderly Alice, a celebrated mystery writer in London, who hands over the keys to the estate so Theo's case can be reopened. The compelling story moves back and forth in time as Sparrow uncovers what happened to Theo in 1933 while also resolving the recent missing-person case. Morton's plotting is impeccable, and her finely wrought characters, brought together in the end by Sparrow's investigation, are as surprised as readers will be by the astonishing conclusion. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

Retreating to Cornwall to pass an enforced leave from the London Metropolitan Police, Det. Constable Sadie Sparrow stumbles upon an estate abandoned 70 years ago after a toddler went missing. As Sadie applies her detecting skills to solve the cold case, three generations of family secrets are unraveled, rebounding from the horrors of World War I to the 1930s and then on to the present day. Morton's (The House at Riverton) plotting and characterizations keep the novel racing along, and Caroline Lee's narration unobtrusively travels through time and inhabits characters of multiple generations and sexes. -VERDICT Lovers of mysteries, family sagas, and love stories will find this novel engrossing. ["Morton can consistently build intriguing stories with a familiar set of tools: family secrets, forgotten mansions, and troubled modern-day meddlers": LJ Xpress Reviews 12/18/15 starred review of the Atria hc.]-Judith Robinson, Dept. of Lib. & Information Studies, Univ. at Buffalo © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A suspected kidnapping, a once-proud manor house, and a disgraced police officer all figure in Morton's latest multigenerational Cornish saga. In 2003, Sadie is put on administrative leave from her post with the London police force for getting too involved in a child-abandonment case. She retreats to her grandfather's house in Cornwall, and there, while jogging, she happens upon the ruin of what locals inform her is Loeanneth, the ancestral lakeside manse of the deShiel family. The story ricochets among 2003, 1911, and 1933 as we learn that Eleanor deShiel, who inspired a children's book reminiscent of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, became the chatelaine of Loeanneth thanks to a Downton Abbey-esque plot twist in which, due to the Titanic disaster, new husband Anthony Edevane inherits enough money to reclaim her birthright from creditors. But when Anthony goes to war, he returns shell-shocked and prone to unpredictable outbursts. Meanwhile, their children, Deborah, Alice and Clemmie, frolic on the grounds, oblivious to their parents' difficulties. Alice, 16, is a budding mystery writer (whose future fame will equal Agatha Christie's), but in 1933 she's nursing a teenage crush on Ben, an impecunious gardener. As a lark, she concocts a hypothetical scenario which might have prompted Ben to kidnap Theo, her baby brother. Flashbacks reveal that Deborah and Clemmie also have reason to blame themselves for Theo's disappearance during an all-night Midsummer's Eve partyhe was never found and his fate remains unknown. At loose ends, Sadie investigates this cold case, developing several theories. As the various skeins intersect, the story becomes unwieldy; using multiple narrators, Morton can believably withhold information to build suspense, but when such selective nondisclosure is carried to extremes, frustrated readers may be tempted to practice their skimming. An atmospheric but overlong history of family secrets and their tormented gatekeepers. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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The Lake House 1 CORNWALL, AUGUST 1933 The rain was heavy now and the hem of her dress was splattered with mud. She'd have to hide it afterwards; no one could know that she'd been out. Clouds covered the moon, a stroke of luck she didn't deserve, and she made her way through the thick, black night as quickly as she could. She'd come earlier to dig the hole, but only now, under veil of darkness, would she finish the job. Rain stippled the surface of the trout stream, drummed relentlessly on the earth beside it. Something bolted through the bracken nearby, but she didn't flinch, didn't stop. She'd been in and out of the woods all her life and knew the way by heart. Back when it first happened, she'd considered confessing, and perhaps, in the beginning, she might have. She'd missed her chance, though, and now it was too late. Too much had happened: the search parties, the policemen, the articles in the newspapers pleading for information. There was no one she could tell, no way to fix it, no way they would ever forgive her. The only thing left was to bury the evidence. She reached the place she'd chosen. The bag, with its box inside, was surprisingly heavy and it was a relief to put it down. On hands and knees, she pulled away the camouflage of ferns and branches. The smell of sodden soil was overwhelming, of wood mouse and mushrooms, of other moldering things. Her father had told her once that generations had walked these woods and been buried deep beneath the heavy earth. It made him glad, she knew, to think of it that way. He found comfort in the continuity of nature, believing that the stability of the long past had the power to alleviate present troubles. And maybe in some cases it had, but not this time, not these troubles. She lowered the bag into the hole and for a split second the moon seemed to peer from behind a cloud. Tears threatened as she scooped the dirt back, but she fought them. To cry, here and now, was an indulgence she refused to grant herself. She patted the ground flat, slapped her hands against it, and stomped down hard with her boots until she was out of breath. There. It was done. It crossed her mind that she should say something before she left this lonely place. Something about the death of innocence, the deep remorse that would follow her always; but she didn't. The inclination made her feel ashamed. She made her way back quickly through the woods, careful to avoid the boathouse and its memories. Dawn was breaking as she reached the house; the rain was light. The lake's water lapped at its banks and the last of the nightingales called farewell. The blackcaps and warblers were waking, and far in the distance a horse whinnied. She didn't know it then, but she would never be rid of them, those sounds; they would follow her from this place, this time, invading her dreams and nightmares, reminding her always of what she had done. Excerpted from The Lake House by Kate Morton All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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