The Lake House in Aussie Readers

Oct 20, 2016 PattyMacDotComma rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian-author, chcc-library, fiction, mystery-crime-thriller, historical-fiction

4★
I always like Kate Morton’s books, and I liked this one too. They are very long, complicated, multi-generational mysteries made up of criminal incidents and unexplained events long past that someone today has become curious about. She doesn’t play favourites. Each generation and character is fleshed out and recognisable. That’s what makes her books so long.

And there are boatloads of red herrings. Every time I’d figured it out and thought—Oh, come on, get on with it already—she’d toss us anoth ...more

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May 07, 2015 Sheree rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2015, own, reviews, historical-fiction, aussie-author

4.5 stars

Lake house ...
Cornwall ...
Sold!

I loved the old-world almost dreamy feel to The Lake House ... I lost myself in another time and place.

The Lake House is a multi-layered story of love, loyalty, loss and long-held secrets. Three strong women; Eleanor, Alice and Sadie, multiple time frames, plots and sub-plots. There's a lot going on.

In 1933 we're introduced to the Edevane family of Leoanneth, the Lake House ... Alice, Deborah, Clemmie, Theo and parents Eleanor and Anthony. On a midsumme ...more

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Jun 22, 2018 Kathy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-authors, highly-recommend, england, favorite-covers, world-war-2, why-haven-t-i-read-this-book-yet, world-war-1

Not reading this book sooner was an egregious error on my part. I know I love Kate Morton's books, but I was so busy with reading mystery and crime books I review, that I had put it to the side to come back to. I'm embarrassed that it took me three years to get back to it. I loved everything about The Lake House, with the setting of Cornwall, England being a favorite setting for me. Kate Morton is a master at taking a multi-generational story and making it grand. The attention to detail, the cha Not reading this book sooner was an egregious error on my part. I know I love Kate Morton's books, but I was so busy with reading mystery and crime books I review, that I had put it to the side to come back to. I'm embarrassed that it took me three years to get back to it. I loved everything about The Lake House, with the setting of Cornwall, England being a favorite setting for me. Kate Morton is a master at taking a multi-generational story and making it grand. The attention to detail, the character development and different viewpoints in that development, the intricate plotting, the twists that twist more than once, and the setting that calls each of us to find such a magical place to live. All of these elements are woven together with expertise and care.

The Lake House, or Loeanneth, located in Cornwall is home to Eleanor and Anthony Edevane in 1933 when the book begins. It is a family estate where they live with their three daughters and infant son, and it is a secret haven for living life in beauty and discovery. Tucked away from public view, it allows a fairytale existence for the family, until it doesn't, until the loss of loved one makes it a place of painful memories. The daughters--Deborah, Alice, and Clementine--spent their childhoods living a dream, but when they reach their teens, life throws a sharp curve from they never fully recover. The reader is shown their life before and after the tragedy at Loeanneth, with the time hops from 1933 to 2003 being the anchor years of the story and other events from interceding years being filled in.

Sadie Sparrow is a London detective who is on forced leave from the police department after her continued interest in a case that had been officially closed. She is spending the unwanted vacation at her grandfather's in Cornwall. While on a walk with her grandfather's dogs, Sadie stumbles across Loeanneth, frozen in time after seventy years of abandonment, left as if its occupants had only stepped out for a bit. Her interest grows in the abandoned property and the story about a tragic event that happened there, but was never resolved. With plenty of time on her hands, she starts digging into the past and headed toward a collision course with Alice Edevane, now an octogenarian and well-known mystery author.

There are so many stories the different characters have to tell and so many secrets to uncover and twists to absorb in this wonderful book. It's a journey that each reader should get to experience fully and without review descriptions that will spoil. So, I've been intentionally vague in my review, but I hope you have gained a sense of what a huge story this is and how you will come to love the characters and the home that is at the center of so many scattered lives. And, the ending will grab your heart with a tenacity of emotion you can't ignore. ...more

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Sep 13, 2020 Nancy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, chicklit

Oh my god this book was so over-written. A 600 page book could easily have been done and dusted within about 300 pages without any loss at all to the story. It just went on, and on, and on.

The story is set in two ages - the 1930s where a mysterious disappearance of a little boy from an idyllic household in the Cornish countryside remains unsolved, and present day with Sadie, a disgraced police officer, who stumbles on the mystery and seeks to work it out. The story is fed to you so very slowly, ...more

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Apr 09, 2017 Dzintra aka Ingrid rated it it was amazing

Shelves: now-reading

As usual Kate kept me enthralled till the (surprising) ending! Many twists and turns and I did try to guess whodunnit and I was pretty right except for the surprise left till last! A great read Kate!

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