Homecoming by Kate Morton

Book Blurb
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959. At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek in the grounds of a grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.

Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital.

At a loose end in Nora’s house, Jess does some digging into her past. In Nora’s bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime – a crime that has never been truly solved. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find . . .

My Review

I have read all of Kate Morton’s previous books and am a huge fan of her writing, so I was very excited to be sent her first novel in four years by the lovely people at Mantle books. I really enjoy how her books have strong female characters, split timelines, are always set in stunning locations, quite often including beautiful gardens, have a mystery at their centre and they are always atmospheric. Homecoming had all traits in abundance, with its murder mystery in a small town in South Australia in 1959 to the story of Jess in 2018 who comes back to see her Grandmother Nora after she has a fall, and finds herself looking into a family secret. An epic read that crosses generations, this is an immersive read about family, mothers and daughters and how secrets will always come to light.

Kate Morton always has wonderful, intriguing and beautifully drawn characters that you feel like you know as the book progresses. In Homecoming Jess is the pivotal character in 2018. She has been living in London for twenty years, when her grandmother Nora has a fall and she has to fly back to Australia and Darling House, the idyllic home of her childhood. Jess is a journalist so after her recollections from her childhood, and things her grandmother has uttered in hospital she begins to look into Halycon, a house owned by Nora’s brother and where in 1959 there was a shocking murder. I loved Jess’s tenacity, she wasn’t going to give up on finding the truth no matter where it took her, even if it meant seeing her beloved Grandmother Nora in a different light. I have to say as the book went on Nora, who was the perfect mother and grandmother, and was held in high regard in her social circles, began to become tarnished, which changed my opinion of her, especially around her daughter, and Jess’s mother Polly.

As with all her previous books Kate Morton seamlessly weaves the two stories together with her eloquent and lyrical prose. Her writing is evocative, capturing the stunning settings in Australia, the gardens with their beautiful flowers and trees, the scents and the colours jumping off the page. The murder mystery element was brilliantly plotted, with twists and turns that play out over the six hundred and fifty pages of the book. I loved the idea of a book within a book, as Jess reads As If They Were Sleeping about the murders that took place, and we get to read them with her, picking up the evidence about what really happened. I was completely consumed by this book, particularly in the 1959 plot, and its not often I stay up until 1 am reading but I just had to finish this book to find out what happened to the characters.

As you can tell my review I adored this book, completely losing myself in the story and lives of the characters, giving me a huge book hangover. Homecoming is the perfect read with aimiable and intriguing characters, a seamless blend of both timelines, a gripping and complex murder mystery and some beautiful settings. It is six hundred and fifty page read so not a quick read, but I wanted this epic read to never end. This is another amazing book from Kate Morton and I hope I don’t have to wait another four years for her next book.

I would like to thank Mantle Books for my advanced copy of this book in return for my honest review.