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Summary
Summary
Another unforgettable tale weaving together history and mystery from the bestselling author of The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden.
A long lost letter arrives in the post and Edie Burchill finds herself on a journey to Middlhurst Castle, a great but moldering old place, where the Blythe spinsters live and where her mother was billeted fifty years before as a thirteen-year-old child during WW II. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives looking after the third and youngest sister, Juniper, who hasn't been the same since her fiance jilted her in 1941.
Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother's past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Millderhurst, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in "the distant hours" of the past has been waiting a long time for someone to find it.
Morton once again enthralls readers with an atmospheric story featuring characters beset by circumstance and haunted by memory, that reminds us of the rich power of storytelling.
Author Notes
Kate Morton was born in South Australia in 1976. She earned a degree in speech and drama from Trinity College London, an English literature degree from the University of Queensland, and a master's degree focusing on tragedy in Victorian literature from the University of Queensland. She also completed a summer Shakespeare course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program researching contemporary novels that marry elements of gothic and mystery fiction.
She won the Australian Book Industry Award for General Fiction Book of the Year in 2007 for her debut novel, The Shifting Fog, also known as The House at Riverton. Her other books include The Distant Hours, and The Forgotten Garden, which won the Australian Book Industry Award for General Fiction Book of the Year in 2009. Her books The Secret Keeper and The Lake House were New York Times bestsellers.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A letter posted in 1941 finally reaches its destination in 1992 with powerful repercussions for Edie Burchill, a London book editor, in this enthralling romantic thriller from Australian author Morton (The Forgotten Garden). At crumbling Milderhurst Castle live elderly twins Persephone and Seraphina and their younger half-sister, Juniper, the three eccentric spinster daughters of the late Raymond Blythe, author of The True History of the Mud Man, a children's classic Edie adores. Juniper addressed the letter to Meredith, Edie's mother, then a young teen evacuated to Milderhurst during the Blitz. Edie, who's later invited to write an introduction to a reprint of Raymond's masterpiece, visits the seedily alluring castle in search of answers. Why was her mother so shattered by the contents of a letter sent 51 years earlier? And what happened to soldier Thomas Cavill, Juniper's long-missing fiance and Meredith's former teacher? Despite the many competing narratives, the answers will stun readers. 5-city author tour. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A letter points the way to a castle in Kent, which harbors decades of grim secrets, in Morton's latest (The House at Riverton, 2008, etc.).Edie, a young woman underemployed by a London small press, is puzzled when her normally placid mother Meredith receives a long-delayed letter and bursts into tears. The letter, it turns out,is from Juniper, one of the three Blythe sisters who inhabit Milderhurst Castle, where Meredith, as a child during World War II, was evacuated to escape the Blitz. From here the story ricochets between the war years and the early 1990s. The evacuation proves to be an unexpected blessing for Meredith, a shy, bookish girl who's misunderstood by her working-class family. Her teacher, Thomas Cavill, encourages her to excel in her studies. She finds true kinship with the three daughters of Raymond Blythe, famed author of a children's classic entitledThe True History of the Mud Man. Raymond, demented and delusional, has secluded himself in his tower room. Much to the chagrin of his eldest daughter Percy, Raymond has evinced an intention to disinherit his daughters. Second sister Saffy schemes to escape the castle for London. Percy is alarmed when Lucy, Milderhurst's last remaining servant, deserts the family for marriage to their clock repairmanPercy's secret crush? Baby sister Juniper meets Thomas when he arrives to check on Meredith. After a whirlwind London love affair, Juniper defies Percy to announce wedding plans. Thrilled, Saffy makes Juniper a party dress and plans an engagement dinner. Juniper and Thomas are due from London by separate trains, but only Juniper shows up. Like Dickens' Miss Havisham, Juniper will grow old, still wearing the tatters of the dress she donned for the fianc who got away. As Edie plumbs Milderhurst's many mysteries, she also struggles to learn what short-circuited her mother's dreams, so briefly kindled 50 years before.After a lengthy buildup, which doggedly connects all the characters, however peripheral, there's a rewarding, bittersweet payoff in the author's most gothic tale yet.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Edie Burchill leads a quiet life as the young vice-president of a small London publishing house. On a trip to meet with a potential author, she gets lost and accidentally discovers Milderhurst Castle, the once stately home in which, as a child, her mother was billeted during WWII. Edie senses a mystery to be uncovered, especially since her normally distant mother burst into tears after receiving a long-lost letter from the castle. Edie manages to get acquainted with the castle's occupants, including the mysterious Blythe sisters Percy, Saffy, and the emotionally damaged Juniper. Also present is the ghost of their father, Raymond, famous author of terrifying children's books and overbearing patriarch. As the secrets behind Milderhurst Castle slowly reveal themselves, Edie discovers a family victimized by its own history and haunted by its memories as well as a mother eager to make up for lost time. In the tradition of the classic gothic novels, The Distant Hours is a spellbinding journey, a mystery whose well-paced revelations provide a surprising and deeply satisfying read.--Gladstein, Carol Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Australian author Morton's (www.-katemorton.com) third novel, following the international best seller The Forgotten Garden (2009)-also available from Bolinda Audio and read by actress Caroline Lee-is another intergenerational story, this one centering on two families: the Blythes of Milderhurst Castle and the Burchills, from working-class London. While researching a children's novel, Edie Burchill is led to the idiosyncratic Blythe sisters, now quite elderly, who had resided at Milderhurst when her mother, Meredith, was sent there to escape the blitz during World War II. A subplot involving the disappearance of Meredith's teacher as he was about to report for duty adds romantic intrigue. Lee tries, mostly successfully, to differentiate between the Blythes' aristocratic manner of speech and the lower-class dialect of the Burchills. Recommended where Jane Eyre is popular. [See Major Audio Releases, LJ 10/15/10; the Atria: S. & S. hc received a starred review, LJ 11/1/10; the Washington Square pb will publish in July 2011.-Ed.]-Sandy Glover, Camas P.L., WA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.