The Lake House

As in all of Kate Morton’s tales the story is split across different time periods; firstly in 1933 where Alice Edavane lives with her parents, her two sisters and her baby brother Theo at Loeanneth. Alice is in her teens already sure that she doesn’t want what her elder sister Deborah wants which is to go to London and marry well. Oh no, she is far too interested in writing stories and living at home for ever helping her father with his natural history studies. So far so normal but on the night of the Midsummer ball the Edavane’s host annually, something terrible happens and life will never be the same again..Years into the future in 2003 the Metropolitan Police have been looking for a mother whose young daughter was left alone for days. Sadie Sparrow, a detective finds herself at odds with her superiors and is packed off for enforced leave to let the dust settle. She decides to stay with her Grandfather Bertie in Cornwall. Bored and worried about both her past and her future she hears of an unsolved crime and decides to investigate. Between that and her running she anxiously awaits the verdict on whether she still has a career to return to.There are layers to this story which span far more years than the two main ones mentioned, we visit the battlefields of WWI, suburbia in the 1980s among plenty of others in-between, and as always with this author, I got a sense that this was backed up by solid research that underpins but never overshadows the story in hand. There are books within the book as well, a murder mystery and a children’s storybook that featured Mrs Edavane, Constance, as a young girl. So the stories swirl around each other, connected but each satisfying in their own right.This is a large book at just over 600 pages and they are all packed with details or actions so none were inserted to make up the numbers! While not fast the pace of the book is consistent without that dreaded dip in the middle, and the characters are varied with realistic lives, hopes and dreams, which is always a bonus. The author has worked hard to make the largish cast rounded, nearly every single character had their fair share of emotions and motivations, some with a hint of a darker side.In amongst the sheer readability is a solid mystery to be solved, along with a few more minor ones. I’m not going to pretend that some of the reveals don’t hinge on massive coincidences, but I found that easy to forgive in such an engaging and entertaining tome of a book, it does come with the territory for these type of historical split time-line stories and Kate Morton carries it off with far more aplomb than most. It was one of those books that I was genuinely sad to say goodbye to once I’d read the last page, it was that satisfying a read but my copy is now off to my friend who I’m sure will love it just as much as I did!

After getting too involved in a missing persons case, Sadie Sparrow finds herself forced to take some leave from her job as a police detective, retreating to her grandfather's place in Cornwall. As she licks her wounds she comes across an abandoned neighbouring estate, Loeanneth, intrigued when she learns of the story attached to the place; that of a young boy gone missing in 1933 on the eve of a grand midsummer's party. Furthermore, it is a case that has never been solved, the Edevane family soon afterwards leaving their country house, never to return. Sadie finds herself drawn inexplicably to trying to discover the truth of what happened to baby Theo all those years ago, appealing to his elder sister, Alice Edevane, now an elderly writer of crime novels. However, Alice seems reluctant to meet with Sadie, and certainly she seems to know more than she is willing to let on.A magical setting, an old country house, a family harbouring more than one secret, and a compelling mystery that links the past to the present; these are all trademarks of Morton and once again she weaves them all together to cast readers under a spell. The Lake House, or Loeanneth, is perhaps her most bewitching setting yet; the house and garden truly do read as something out of a fairytale, Morton's descriptions utterly enchanting. Also compared to Morton's previous books, the mystery element to this novel is actually much more the driving focus and centre of the story; and Morton litters plenty of false trails and red herrings throughout.As with her previous books, the story flits from past to present and is told from varying perspectives. I found the past story centring around Theo Edevane the most compelling aspect as opposed to the subplot around Sadie's modern day case. The Edevane's are a complex family, and as the story evolves we slowly begin to see past the shiny, picture perfect veneer they present and understand the real dynamics at play. Furthermore in order to be able to appreciate and believe the events and decisions that are made later in the book, it is necessary to first appreciate what came before; and hence Morton takes us back to the years before WW1 and through the backstory of Anthony and Eleanor Edevane (Theo's parents). As such unravelling the mystery is in many ways like peeling back the layers of an onion; and whilst at times it may appear that Morton is meandering in her tale, everything is relevant and comes together at the end.Morton's books often express a love of literature and pay homage to such in themselves, and I liked the inclusion of fairy-tale elements in the story, with Mr Llwellyns children's tales, as well as references to Alice's own fictional detective works; and Morton's play on the parallels between life and fiction.Morton also plays with the idea in this novel of how a person's recollection of events is often coloured by their own emotions and sometimes biased perceptions; and as such how subjective and liable to error memories can be. In many ways, Alice Edevane reminded me rather of Briony from Atonement, with several parallels between the characters. Both become famous writers, both carry an enormous guilt through the years, both misinterpret events around them in their youth.As much as I enjoyed the story, I wouldn't say it was my favourite Morton novel. Aspects of the plotting didn't seem as tight as in previous stories, the ending in particular overly coincidental. Also I thought Morton could be rather heavy-handed at times in the way she used Sadie's thought processes to almost shoe-horn different theories regarding Theo's disappearance at the reader; I would have preferred such suggestions to be subtler, and at times it almost felt as if Morton were trying too hard to deceive. I also found Eleanor a rather difficult character to connect to despite the fact that Morton clearly wanted to paint her in a sympathetic light; it wasn't that I couldn't appreciate the difficulties of her situation or the heartache she endured, just that she remained aloof to me nevertheless and was in some ways too contradictory a figure.Overall another signature Kate Morton novel; rich and suspenseful and intricately woven, though perhaps a little far-fetched.

I loved this book! The main plotline concerns the mystery of baby Theo Edevane who disappears from the family home in Cornwall in 1933, a mystery which has never been resolved. The mystery comes to the attention of Sadie Sparrow (a police officer on enforced leave from the Met because of a misdemeanour of her own during a missing person case) when she discovers the abandoned Loeanneth House while out running. There are lots of layers to this story and it jumps about between different points in the past and the present. It's never confusing though, and the truth is gradually unravelled in a compelling and gripping way. I found the characters believable, and flawed, yet likeable as they battled with the various dilemmas they were confronted with. I particularly like the way that the relationship between fiction and real life was explored by the writer; it's not done in a heavy-handed way but it definitely added an extra dimension to the story.This is a book with a lot of pages but it never felt long. I found it quite gripping and towards the end began to resent the fact that I did sometimes have to put it down to get jobs done. It's a really satisfying read and unlike in many mystery stories, the author pulls the threads together well. I certainly didn't guess the final resolution until quite close to the end and there are lots of red herrings along the way. This would be a great holiday read (especially if you are heading for Cornwall), but actually it is also a great any time read as well. Highly recommended!

This book had so many twists and turns and i could not put it down! Kate Morgans characters were well planned . Could see a movie of this one

4.5 starsNot to be confused with the movie of the same name starring Sandra Bullock, The Lake House by Kate Morton is part historical fiction, part contemporary fiction, part family saga, part romance, and part mystery. In other words, this book has it all! It took me a bit longer than usual to get into the story which moves back and forth between two time periods, the 1930s and 2003 with glances back into the earlier 1900s, and introduces a host of characters the reader must "meet" and "get to know," but once I knew who was who and when, I was drawn into the characters and the story, and as I read the last words, I can honestly say that I enjoyed l this book tremendously. The mysteries (that's right, there's not just one, but two parallel mysteries to be solved), the characters, the storylines - all of it kept me guessing as to what was happening right up until the very end when everything came together in the most wonderful, albeit somewhat bittersweet, manner. At 512 pages, the Lake House was not a quick read, but it was most assuredly a worthwhile read.

El libro acaba de llegar y llegó sucio, además de que está maltratado de las esquinas. Pedí un libro nuevo y me llegó uno usado. La portada es diferente al libro que pedí...

livre reçu conforme à la description qui en était faite par le vendeur et reçu à la date indiquée.

Kate Morton is an Australian novelist who wrote the the late house,which is one of best gothic and mystery story. In this story,mr Anthony and mr's edevane has three girls namely Deborah, Anthony and clementine and one baby boy Theo,who is eleven months old kidnapped due to their midnight's eves party without any trace behind in 1933. Due to plenty of police investigation this case remained unsolved.in 2003 a new criminology namely Sadie sparrow arrive who studied this case deeply to solve two mysteries that where that children is and why all the family members left their luxurious home forever.........