The Lake House by Kate Morton Published 2015

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Summer 1933 and the Edevane family are holding their annual Midsummer Ball at their Cornwall home Loeanneth. During the midnight firework display a tragedy happens that makes the family leave the house and move to London, never to return.

In 2003 DCI Sadie Sparrow is in Cornwall visiting her grandfather after working on a troubling case. Whilst there she comes across Loeanneth and begins to look into the mystery attached to it. In London Alice Edevane, now in her 80s, is writing her 50th crime novel. For 70 years she has felt guilty about what happened that night in !933, but has never talked about it. This is all about to change when she receives a letter from DCI Sadie Sparrow, who wants to find out what happened to Alice’s brother Theo.

I have read, and loved, all Kate Morton’s other books so was expecting great things from this book, and I wasn’t disappointed. I love her formula of setting her novels in two different eras with their narrative running concurrently, it makes the book hard to put down as you want to know what happens next in each era. Her writing is very descriptive, she almost paints a picture with words. The description of Loeanneth is so vivid that I could see it like a postcard and felt is was a scene that was familiar to me. Her characters have an honesty and warmth about them that makes them feel like family. The realism of flawed but likeable characters draws you into their lives. I really enjoyed the running theme of motherhood in the storyline, and what it means to be a mother; each generation has their own problems but all show the lengths a mother would go to to provide the best for their children.

As you can tell I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it and her other novels.