The lake house A novel

Detective Constable Sadie Sparrow, in disgrace over a misstep on a missing-person case, is taking an unwanted vacation visiting her grandfather in Cornwall when she stumbles across a fully furnished but abandoned country house. She is intrigued by the isolated setting, and once she learns the bare bones of the house's history, she becomes obsessed. It seems that 70 years earlier, a child disappeared from the house and was never found. The story jumps backward and forward in time from Sadie in 2003 to the Edevane family in 1933. Lee, who has narrated other Morton novels (most recently The Secret Keeper, 2012), enhances Morton's tale of suspense, giving voice to the wide range of characters. She captures Sadie's plaintive tones as she pleads to return to the London job she loves, a dowager grandmother's imperious voice, the whining of children, the regret of the gardener, and the gossipy postmistress. This multilayered story makes for a good listen. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

Retreating to Cornwall to pass an enforced leave from the London Metropolitan Police, Det. Constable Sadie Sparrow stumbles upon an estate abandoned 70 years ago after a toddler went missing. As Sadie applies her detecting skills to solve the cold case, three generations of family secrets are unraveled, rebounding from the horrors of World War I to the 1930s and then on to the present day. Morton's (The House at Riverton) plotting and characterizations keep the novel racing along, and Caroline Lee's narration unobtrusively travels through time and inhabits characters of multiple generations and sexes. VERDICT Lovers of mysteries, family sagas, and love stories will find this novel engrossing. ["Morton can consistently build intriguing stories with a familiar set of tools: family secrets, forgotten mansions, and troubled modern-day meddlers": LJ Xpress Reviews 12/18/15 starred review of the Atria hc.]—Judith Robinson, Dept. of Lib. & Information Studies, Univ. at Buffalo [Page 43]. (c) Copyright 2016 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Secret Keeper andThe Distant Hours, an intricately plotted, spellbinding new novel of heartstopping suspense and uncovered secrets.Living on her family’s gorgeous lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, clever, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented fourteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure.…One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest son, Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined, leaving their estate as empty as their broken hearts.Nearly sixty years later, having enjoyed a long, successful career as an author, Alice is now eighty years old and living in London. Theo’s case has never been solved, though Alice still harbours a suspicion as to the culprit. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather’s house in Cornwall. While out walking one day, she stumbles upon the old estate—now crumbling and covered with vines, clearly abandoned long ago. Her curiosity is sparked, setting off a series of events that will bring her and Alice together and reveal shocking truths about a past long gone…yet more present than ever.A lush, atmospheric tale of intertwined destinies, this latest novel from a masterful storyteller is spellbinding and satisfying.