Thank you to TandemCollectiveGlobal, Mariner Books, #partner, for a finished copy of Homecoming in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: April 4, 2023
Summary:
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.
Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job 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 been raced to the hospital.
Nora has always been a vibrant and strong presence: decisive, encouraging, young despite her years. When Jess visits her in the hospital, she is alarmed to find her grandmother frail and confused. It’s even more alarming to hear from Nora’s housekeeper that Nora had been distracted in the weeks before her accident and had fallen on the steps to the attic—the one place Jess was forbidden from playing in when she was small.
At loose ends in Nora’s house, Jess does some digging of her own. In Nora’s bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime—a crime that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find…
An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, and how we protect the lies we tell. It explores the power of motherhood, the corrosive effects of tightly held secrets, and the healing nature of truth. Above all, it is a beguiling and immensely satisfying novel from one of the finest writers working today.
My thoughts:
I fell in love with Kate Morton’s books when I read The Forgotten Garden many years ago. I have since read, and loved, The Clockmaker’s Daughter, and have collected all her other books, though they are just sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read. After absolutely loving this latest one, I will definitely be diving into those other books very soon!
I was very fortunate to read this book with a group of others and it was so fun…having a reading schedule and breaking this book down into manageable chunks because it’s quite a large book. I looked forward to sitting down each day and reading that day’s assignment and then seeing what everyone else had thought, but then I became a bad buddy reader because I got to a point in the book where I just couldn’t stop reading one day…I was just so invested in the story and needed to keep reading! To me, that’s the sign of such a great book and this definitely is just that – it’s an amazing book, but I do feel bad that I read ahead instead of staying with the group. Oh well.
This book had everything I love woven into one story – dual timelines, fantastic characters that I just could not get enough of, a multigenerational story, a cold case – there’s my love of mystery and true crime combined together! – and a book-within-a-book. From the very beginning I was swept up in this story and when I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about this book. Even now, I am still thinking about these characters. I loved that all throughout, I had so many theories as to what would happen as I made my way through the book. As big as this book is, there is nothing written that doesn’t get used at some point. Nothing is given to us about a character that is superfluous. It really is quite brilliant.
This may start off a little slow, but the more you read, the more invested you become and as the pieces start to fall into place, it really does become quite impossible to put down. I think if I had been reading it myself I would have read it quite quickly, despite the length. And I know it is definitely a book I will reread at some point in the future, maybe after I read all the other ones I haven’t yet read.
Of the three Kate Morton books I’ve read – and again, I’ve loved them all, this one definitely ranks my favorite. We’ll see if that remains to be the case after I read the others…I believe it will stay my favorite, but we shall see. Have you read any of her books yet? If so, what is your favorite?
