The Lake House

Starred review from July 27, 2015
Bestselling storyteller Morton (The Secret Keeper) excels in this mystery set against the gothic backdrop of 1930s England. In Cornwall, the wealthy Edevane family prepares for its annual midsummer ball at Loeanneth, their isolated estate. That night, teenager Alice Edevane is lingering near the nursery when someone kidnaps the cherished Edevane son, Theo; despite a lengthy investigation, he is never found. The story moves forward to 2003 London, where Det. Sgt. Sadie Sparrow is suspended after speaking to the media about a missing-person case, recently closed, that haunts her. Sparrow seeks refuge with her grandfather in Cornwall. On her first morning run there, she finds the now-dilapidated Loeanneth mansion deep in the woods. Curious, Sparrow peers through the windows into tumbledown rooms abandoned in haste long ago. She begins to investigate the 70-year-old Edevane case with help from the Cornwall locals, including a retired copper who was there in 1933 when Theo disappeared. Sparrow locates the now-elderly Alice, a celebrated mystery writer in London, who hands over the keys to the estate so Theo’s case can be reopened. The compelling story moves back and forth in time as Sparrow uncovers what happened to Theo in 1933 while also resolving the recent missing-person case. Morton’s plotting is impeccable, and her finely wrought characters, brought together in the end by Sparrow’s investigation, are as surprised as readers will be by the astonishing conclusion.

October 15, 2015
In the latest from Morton, secrets from the past come to light in the present, a theme that is the author's specialty. Alice Edevane is a teenage novelist in love in 1930s Cornwall. Loeanneth (literally, the lake house) is a place made for storytelling, with magical woods and fairy fields, all totally lost on her stern mother, Eleanor. Seventy years later, Sadie Sparrow is visiting her grandfather after getting too close to a case, a no-no for a London detective. Sadie stumbles upon Loeanneth, frozen in time, and throws herself into the mystery of the abandoned house, using her considerable professional skills and a helpful librarian. She tries to involve a native mystery novelist, A. E. Edevane, who has not been back to Cornwall in years. Missing babies, maternal sacrifice, and secrets, secrets, secretsMorton offers generous clues, only to peel back deeper layers just when the truth seems close. There is a procedural element to the story for traditional mystery readers, and it is not short on heart-wrenching choices and rich characters. The ending is a bit neat, but after all Morton puts the characters through, they've earned it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)