Kate Morton is an Australian author who has erupted onto the world scene with these wonderful stories of 20th century characters involved in mysteries involving both World Wars, secrets, social position, relationships, and the usual assortment of screwed-up family dynamics. The Forgotten Garden opens with a little girl being found alone on a dock in Brisbane, Australia in 1907. The dockmaster takes her home until he can find out where she belongs - and he and his wife end up raising her. He finally tells her when she's was 21 that she had been adopted, and years later, after she died, her granddaughter travels to England to try to find out where the grandmother had come from. All she has to go on is a white suitcase with a book of illustrated fairy tales inside, which the little girl was carrying when she was found. There is romance, intrigue, and Dickensian settings.
The House at Riverton tells the story of a former maid in one of the fine country mansions owned and occupied by a family of "landed gentry" in Yorkshire, England. The story is told in flashback as the former maid, now in her 90's, remembers her life for a movie director making a film about the rich family, which was made famous when a prominent poet killed himself at one of their parties -- amid suggestions of a love affair with one daughter, an engagement to another . . . What this old woman remembers about what REALLY happened makes the story, but of course the truth is not revealed until the very end.
Both of these are good books to grab when you're ready to curl up under a blanket, sipping a cup of hot chocolate in front of a roaring fire. Dive in!
Both books earn 3.5 stars out of 4
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