The Lake House was my second Kate Morton novel, and most likely my last. I like this one better than The Clockmaker’s Daughter. I listened to the Audible version, which is 21 hours and 24 minutes long and enjoyed about 17 hours of it. The book is over 600 pages long, so I would not recommend it to my book club. Kate Morton is loquacious with the exhausting descriptions that burden the otherwise interesting plot. [For example, telling parts of the story through the eyes of an 11-month old and the detailed conversations between a pair of lovers that did nothing to further the plot]. I was torn between a 3 and a 4-Star rating because of the superfluous storytelling. I settled on 4 stars because the underlying story is entertaining.
The plot centers around the disappearance of 11-month-old Theo Edevane, during a midsummer’s eve party in 1933 from Loeanneth, the estate owned by his wealthy parents in Cornwall. Theo was much beloved by his parents, Anthony and Eleanor Edevane, his three older sisters, his grandmother, and the household staff. He was never found and the family abandoned Loeanneth, leaving every belonging in its exact location (How unbelievably convenient). One of the sisters, Alice, becomes a successful mystery writer. She proves to be an unreliable narrator since she mistakenly believes that she was the cause of Theo’s disappearance.
Seventy years later, Sadie Sparrow accidentally stumbles upon the still intact Loeanneth while staying with her grandfather, Bertie. Sadie is a young, single London Metropolitan Police Service detective who was forced to take leave from the department after leaking information about a closed case to the press. With nothing else to fill her days, Sadie decides to solve the enigma of what happened to Theo Edevane. Eventually, Sadie and Alice Edevane meet, and the truth unfolds. There was one plot twist involving an older gentleman that caught me by surprise, which is always fun. The case that forced Sadie to go on leave is also resolved.
In addition to finding out what happened to Theo, the story deals with many topics such as adoption, infertility, shell-shock from the war, parental love, keeping promises, infidelity, mental breakdowns, and aging.
If you are on Goodreads, please like my review!
And now for my English Recipe For Readers recommendation:
Our family friend Mark Brown is an excellent home chef. I can’t tell you how many wonderful meals of his we have enjoyed. His Shepherd’s Pie is one of our favorites. Click Here for Mark’s Shepherd’s Pie Recipe.