Book: Homecoming
Author: Kate Morton
Pages: 558
Read on: Kindle
Read in: 5 hours
Plot Summary: Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of a grand country house, a local man makes a terrible discovery. Police are called, and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most baffling murder investigations in the history of South Australia.
Many years later and thousands of miles away, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for two decades, she now finds herself unemployed 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 is seriously ill in the hospital.
At Nora's house, Jess discovers a true crime book chronicling a long-buried police case: the Turner Family Tragedy of 1959. It is only when Jess skims through its pages that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this notorious event – a mystery that has never been satisfactorily resolved.
Things I Liked:
1. If you think you would enjoy historical murder mysteries, then you simply must read Kate Morton! We have read and loved every single book of hers and if you want to look at those books, then click here to read our detailed spoiler-free reviews. So, much like all of her books, the premise is 10/10 and since the story revolves around four mysterious deaths from 1959, I knew, going in, that this book was going to be a fun ride!
2. The narrative is fast-paced, interesting and taut; you don't find your mind wandering or yourself getting bored. The story is a split-time narrative, which moves from the events of December 1959 to 2018 with some pitstops in the 1970s and 1980s as well. The mysterious death of four members of the Turner family in rural South Australia sets off a series of interesting events and the book unravels these as we go along. In the present day, we have Jess, who has to return home to Sydney when her grandmother, Nora, was hospitalised after a bad fall. It is Jess, who accidentally chances upon the mysterious deaths of the Turner family and starts unravelling the secrets of the past.
The author does a great job, as always, in bringing the places, people and situations to life. As a reader, you feel like you get to know these characters and you are in these places as the events unfold, which is a huge testament to Kate Morton's writing prowess!
3. This book is about families, functional and dysfunctional ones. It is also about motherhood and mothering- all kinds of it. It is about claustrophobic mothering relationships and about decisions women make with far-reaching consequences. As the true events of the December of 1959 unravel, aided by a non-fiction book written by a journalist covering the case, a lot of these different kinds of motherhood and mothering situations are looked at and each makes the reader think.
4. I really liked how the missing pieces of the puzzle for the cold case from 1959 were put together. At first, it was only Jess who did the research and found out quite a bit about Isabel Turner, the mother, who was accused of killing herself and her three children and then we also learn that Jess' estranged mother, Polly, did her own research about the past. The way the secrets are unraveled and new information comes to light is very nicely done.
5. The murder mystery itself is not very easy to solve. The culprit is not very obvious but is guess-able if you pay attention. :) There are several red herrings and that is always a good thing in a mystery book!
Things I Didn't Like:
1. Nora, the grandmother, who is at the centre of this whole story and caused certain events to unfold remains a shadowy figure. We don't really get to know how she thinks and what drives a lot of her actions and there are no chapters from her perspective to help us understand her better.
Rating: 4.5/5
If you enjoy historical crime fiction, then this is a good book to pick up!
No comments:
Post a Comment