Living on her family’s idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented sixteen-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 child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined.
Decades later, Alice is living in London, having enjoyed a long successful career as an author. Theo’s case has never been solved, though Alice still harbors 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.
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I'm not really much of a mystery fan, but I really enjoyed this one. I don't even know if it is officially classified as a mystery, but it definitely has some mystery novel elements to it. Even just the most basic one of there being something that is being worked towards being solved almost the entire book.
I feel that Morton did some amazing character development within this novel and I would even go as far as to say it is probably one of the greatest strengths of this book. I really did feel like I knew these characters, even to the point that when they suggested certain scenarios about what may have happened, and it picks so-and-so as responsible, I would know pretty accurately if the theory was correct or not.
I found I was a pretty good audience for this book as I didn't get ahead of the big reveals or see any of the plot twists coming until just before they happen. I feel I reacted when I was supposed to react, which I think makes it a pretty good novel for me. Although sometimes it makes me feel smarter than I am if I beat the author to the reveal, more often than not it just leads me to being disappointed in the book.
I also felt pretty attracted to a theme (I may have created in my own mind) in the novel about the lengths that parents will go to to protect their children. There are plenty of kids in this book and we get to know them throughout different stages of their lives, all of them have very different relationships with their parents and grandparents. The lengths these parents go to protect their children (or not protect them) from a variety of potentially harmful situations is enlightening. I don't want to say too much about this, because it starts to get into spoiler territory, but I will say that it was a very prevalent and enticing element, and a theme I was very interested in from the beginning of the novel to the end.
Solid recommend from me on this one!
