The Lake House

Summary (from the publisher): 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.

Review: Living in Cornwall, England in 1933, Alice Edevane lives an enchanted life on her family's lakeside estate, pursuing her interest in writing. But her dreamy quality of her childhood is shattered forever when her baby brother Theo disappears in the middle of the night and is never found. Decades later, Alice is an accomplished writer while miles away, a young detective, with secrets of her own, stumbles upon the decades old case and begins to work to uncover the missing child case. After so many years of heartbreak, guilt, and regrets, Alice and her family may have answers to what really happened to Theo that night so long ago. 

This novel is told in alternating dual narratives so the reader is constantly hopping between 1933 and 2011. Morton is a master of using this narrative frame to her advantage to build suspense and to push the plot along. Unlike most novels with this structure, both of the storylines were equally interesting. And despite being nearly five hundred pages, this was a fast paced read, with short chapters that left the reader hanging and kept me up past my bedtime frequently. 

I loved this novel, most especially the setting of Loeanneth and the beautiful Edevane family. The image of a missing eleven month old baby was horrifying to me, which made the lasting impact of the family's tragedy fully justified. Morton did an excellent job weaving the two storylines together and concluding the tale. My one great complaint is that the ending was a bit too tidy and perfect, with everyone left with a happy outcome. I also found the explained motivation behind Theo's disappearance less than believable, although it worked well to explain the story.  Overall, an excellent work of historical fiction and mystery that I was quite sad to finish!

Stars: 4

Related Titles: 

• The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
• The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton