Review: The Clockmaker’s Daughter

The Clockmaker’s Daughter is a historical fiction novel written by Kate Morton. The story is about a group of young artists who in 1862 spent a few weeks in Birchwood Manor. By the time their stay is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared. Over a hundrer years later, Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London comes across a leather bag that contains two objects: an artist’s sketchbook containing a drawing of a house and the photograph of a woman. Why does all of this seem so familiar to Elodie? And who is the woman in the photograph?

It’s the fourth novel I read by Kate Morton. They all follow a similar pattern: a mysterious death or disappearance that occurred decades (or centuries) ago will try to be resolved by a character from the present. And there’s always a tinge of romance.

There was a real ghost and some supernatural elements involved in this story. I felt it would’ve been a great opportunity to experiment with some magic realism. But there wasn’t much detail on these elements, which upset me a bit.

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Review: The Lake House

The title in the Spanish version is “The Last Goodbye”

Hi there! So today I’ll be sharing my thoughts on “The Lake House”, Kate Morton’s fifth novel. I’m actually a bit late, I finished reading the book two weeks ago, but I couldn’t find the time to sit down and write calmly. This is the third book I read by this author. I absolutely love her style, combining mysteries of the past and present with the right amount of romance. This novel is no exception, the story itself is captivating. 500 pages that will leave you wanting more.

The story begins in Cornwall 1933, with Alice Edevane as the main character. She’s sixteen and aspires to write a novel. Then it flash forwards to Sadie Sparrow, London 2003. She’s a detective and goes to Cornwall to stay with her grandfather for a few weeks. One day while jogging through the woods, she comes across an abandoned house, which happens to belong to Alice’s family. Soon, Sadie’s detective instinct tells her to dig in the past, why would the owners leave house intact? She tries to reach Alice, now a famous writer that resides in London. Alice refuses to look back on her family’s past, but later realizes that she had been wrong about what happened during the midsummer solstice party of 1933. Will detective Sadie help her reveal the truth that has been hiding under decades of memories and dust?

Different covers available, as shown in katemorton.com

I won’t mention any spoilers. The plot is well developed, and what I liked the most about this book (comparing it to others by Morton), is that in this one the author provides the point of view of secondary characters, which helps shape the storyline even better.

Overall rating: 4/5. I’m not giving it a 5 because towards the last few chapters, it became a bit predictable, but still enjoyable nonetheless.

P.S. Her books make me want to visit Cornwall, perhaps I should add it to my bucketlist.