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By Debbie Balzotti
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This is my favorite historical fiction novel of the year. I’ve read several best sellers and new releases, but this is the one I pre-ordered and started reading the day it was dropped on my doorstep. Kate Morton writes suspenseful, intriguing stories about characters with deep, dark secrets. I’ve loved every book she’s written and “The Lake House” is another great one.
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In 1933, Eleanor and Anthony Edevane are preparing their home in the Cornwall countryside for their annual Midsummer Eve party. Sixteen-year-old Alice Edevane and her sisters enjoy a magical evening but awake to the shocking news that their adored baby brother Theo is missing. Alice and her family are devastated by the tragedy and leave their beloved home, never to return.
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Seventy years later, DC Sadie Sparrow arrives in Cornwall to visit her grandfather and escape the fall-out from a case gone wrong. On a morning run, the detective discovers the ruin of the Edevane mansion and learns that a baby boy disappeared from the house, but the case was never solved. She decides to investigate the tragedy to distract herself from her own problems.
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After researching everything about the cold case – reading files, searching old newspaper accounts and studying maps of the house – she decides to track down Alice Edevane.
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Sadie sets up a meeting with the elderly Alice Edevane, now a famous crime novelist living in London, and asks her about her family tragedy. Sadie describes herself to the cautious Alice: “No. I’m not a reckless person. I’m conscientious. Maybe with a dash of headstrong.” Alice entrusts her with family secrets and hopes Sadie will finally discover what happened to her baby brother Theo.
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Once again, author Kate Morton writes a magical haunting mystery that kept me awake reading late at night until I finished the book – but it was worth it. The surprises, secrets and plot twists kept me riveted until the very end.
