The Lake House
{5/5} “All families were a composite of stories, and yet her own, it seemed, comprised more layers of tellings and retellings than most. There were so many of them, for one thing, and they all liked to talk and write and wonder. Living as they had at Loeanneth, a house rich with its own history, it was inevitable that they’d constructed their lives as a series of stories. But it seemed there’d been one very important chapter that was never told.”
The Lake House by Kate Morton, published in 2015
In 1933 Alice’s baby brother disappears from a party. He isn’t found, and the family moves away from Loeanneth never to return. In 2003 Sadie is a police detective who’s been forced to take time off by her boss. She visits her grandfather, and while out running with the dogs stumbles across a run down estate, Loeanneth. She soon becomes obsessed by the disappearance that happened 70 years ago.
This book has nothing to do with the movie starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves.
The story is mostly told from Sadie’s and Alice’s point of view, but we also get sections from Alice’s mother Eleanor’s point of view.
Set aside a bit of time, because this one’s hard to put down.
It’s about family, love, promises, and secrets. It’s about coming home from war changed, and giving away a child you’re unable to take care of.
It’s about unravelling a mystery — I guarantee you’ll want to know the answers.
At the end you might think, at least briefly, that these characters are part of your own family.
I previously reviewed Morton’s The Distant Hours.