The Distant Hours

Summary (from the publisher): A long lost letter arrives in the post and Edie Burchill finds herself on a journey to Milderhurst Castle, a great but moldering old house, where the Blythe spinsters live and where her mother was billeted 50 years before as a 13 year old child during WWII. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives looking after the third and youngest sister, Juniper, who hasn’t been the same since her fiance jilted her in 1941.

Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in ‘the distant hours’ of the past has been waiting a long time for someone to find it.

Morton once again enthralls readers with an atmospheric story featuring unforgettable characters beset by love and circumstance and haunted by memory, that reminds us of the rich power of storytelling.

Review: This is the old fashioned and gothic tale of forbidden love and secrets in a castle in the English countryside. Its plot is composed of two plotlines: a modern day first person account of Edith Burchill as she sets about unravelling Midlehurst Castle's secrets and a third person account of the actual events during WWII when Edith's mother was sent away from London to live with the three Blythe sisters in their castle. I loved the gothic feel to the novel that has everything from madness, forbidden love, murder, family secrets, lost letters, tortured writers to an ancient castle that becomes a character in itself. Additionally, I loved the homage to books, writers, and readers tucked neatly away into the plot. The castle, writer father, and desperate daughters reminded me a lot of I Capture the Castle (albeit without the tragedy and lingering sadness of this novel). Morton does a great job in both this novel and her earlier work, The Forgotten Garden, in blending genres - both novels are historical fiction and mystery in one.

My one main complaint was that I felt from the very beginning of the novel that the first person narration failed to interweave smoothly with the third person account. Morton simple is more compelling in the third person; her characters seem more real from that perspective. Also, I was somewhat disappointed with the conclusion of the novel, but I suppose with all the suspense built up in over 500 pages, its going to be hard to please everyone. However, I'll definitely be putting Morton's third novel A House at Riverton on my to-read list.

Stars: 4