Jess's life isn't exactly going to plan. She's lost her job and her partner in quick succession when she gets a call from Australia saying that her grandmother Nora has had a fall and Jess needs to return home. Her grandmother might be eight-nine years old but the woman who raised her has always seemed so young so she doesn't understand the urgency in the doctors' voices. But it's not exactly like she can claim she's busy at the moment so she returns to the home in which she was raised, Darling House, in Sydney. There she tries to piece together how Nora could have fallen. This seems so unexpected, but when she starts to ask questions she realizes that the grandmother she thought she knew and loved had been acting odd lately. Nora had been secretive, furtively reading a book which she wouldn't let anyone else see. She might even have been digging around in the attic when she fell. This could all be dated back to a letter she got in the mail from a solicitor in New South Wales. But Jess can't think of any connection her grandmother had there until she remembers that Nora had an older brother who died right around the time that Jess came to live at Darling House. A brother who lived in New South Wales. Her grandmother's injury seems to be tied to a secret in the past and so Jess, being a journalist, even if she's currently unemployed, starts to dig. Thomas Turner returned to Australia after World War II. He decided to settle in Tambilla in the Adelaide Hills. There he purchased and renovated a house that was commonly referred to as the Wentworth House. A large, sprawling home that had a tragic backstory, but not nearly as tragic as the one that would befall the house once it was rechristened Halcyon. Thomas brought his English bride Isabel to live there with their expanding family. When December 1959 rolled around they had four beautiful and precocious children, Matilda, John, Evie, and a newborn baby girl. On Christmas Eve Isabel took the children down to the creak to escape the heat of the day. That is where they lay when Percy Summers, the proprietor of the local grocery store, found them. They were all dead. Except for the baby. The baby was nowhere to be found. It was assumed that the baby was dragged off by some wild animal. This entire sorry affair was documented by Daniel Miller in his book As If They Were Asleep. Which happens to be the book that Nora was reading when she had her turn. Which means that Nora's preoccupation with the past does indeed figure into the present. It turns out Nora was there at Halcyon. She gave birth to Jess's mother Polly on Christmas Eve as her family lay dead. But why Nora's obsession? Could she have known something, some secret, that she's been holding on to all her life? And could Daniel Miller have the answers? He conducted extensive interviews with Nora. Did she confess something? And can Jess help lift the guilt from her grandmother's shoulders before it's too late?

If you're a fan of Kate Morton, you know you don't read her for the mysteries. You read her for the atmosphere; the old wallpaper crumbling in a stately manor, the creak of an old floorboard that the house's inhabitants have long grown accustomed to, the sense of elegant decay. This is what Kate Morton books are about and thankfully, after a misstep with The Clockmaker's Daughter , she is back in fine fettle, once again delving into the darkest secrets that Ancestry.com doesn't document. Family secrets that not even the family are aware of. These mysteries pepper all of Kate Morton's books, and sadly, are often easily solved. As I stated previously, you don't read her books for the mysteries. Which, ironically, would be doing this book a disservice, because for the first time I think the mystery steals the show. We have what amounts to a more deadly version of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, an unsolved case she has taken inspiration from before, and we see it played out through dual timelines. But what I feel really sets Homecoming apart are two things, Daniel's Miller's book and her sticking to the Golden Age rule of fair play. Miller's book within the book, As If They Were Asleep, reads as just a wonderful gripping true crime story. It has such a unique and different voice and tone to Morton's usual work that it actually feels like it could conceivably exist and therefore the tragedy in Tambilla is given a greater weight. You actually feel as if this isn't a fictional story that Kate Morton has created for her dedicated readers, but that she stumbled on a real case and a real book and wove this narrative around it. Of course, this isn't the case, but it really feels like it is and that makes this book special. This makes the book something more, something unique, especially among her bibliography. The other thing that sets this apart is that she followed the Golden Age rule of fair play. The rule states that the reader has to be given all the information that they need in order to solve the crime. The author can't pull some weird Josephine Tey The Man in the Queue bullshit wherein there was no way in which the reader could conceivably solve the case. Ronald Knox codified this in his ten rules which, really, if you want a good laugh you should read them to see how badly some of them have aged. Also, he really didn't like secret passages. He would have hated the movie Clue. Therefore we could never have been friends. In fairness to Morton, I don't think she's ever played dirty, but here the way she draws out the information leaves you guessing until almost the very end when all the pieces click into place. It was masterfully done. Also, seriously, wicked vengeance. I approve. I can't wait to see where her writing goes next. Now to just sit here for her next book, which if it follows her average three year gap would mean a new book next year... Though it could be at least five. Here's hoping it's not more.

I am a huge fan of Kate Morton! I always look forward to her novel. The premise to the book is very interesting. I did not really connect to the characters. I also found Nora to be extremely dislikable and selfish. I found Jess to be a bland character. The pacing was uneven. The beginning and ending was very fast-paced. The middle was boring and a slog. I also found the mystery to be predictable. Still, it was a very interesting premise and all Kate Morton fans should read it! I recommend this for fans of Lucinda Riley!

Honk shoo, honk shoo, mimimimi.

Rounding my rating down to what Goodreads labels as "it was ok" because I'm so very frustrated with this story's wasted potential. I heard such wonderful things about this book but was disappointed. I've liked the other couple books of Kate's I've read, too!

This book was far too long. I say this after having just read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which is a very long and slow book, but I was never bored reading it. Homecoming was both slow and boring. There's so much mindless detail about Jess like, moving around the house and reading the book within a book. And you get every little minute thought or action she does. The book got pretty repetitive.

This was such a chore to get through after a very intriguing prologue. Jess did not work as a main character for me in the slightest; you're supposed to feel sympathy for her as she's working out the multiple mysteries but she was SO rude to Polly and a wet rag of a character overall. Polly's brief POVs were the most interesting to me outside of Percy and his family's story. One of the "mystery" plots of the book was guessable from the off.

Nora can kick rocks.

I absolutely love this book! Completely blown away by the level of detail, character-development, and perfect setting. It is LONG, so definitely isn't going to be for all readers -- but if you stick with it, it's so worth it.

4 stars. A very solid and satisfying read. I did guess some of the big twists and mysteries very early on, but not all of them and not always the "why" and/or the "how" of them. In any event, I was engaged the whole way through. The book maybe could be a bit shorter, but it never dragged, that I remember. And I loved that many of the characters, in both timelines, turned out to be much more complicated - and sometimes much darker - than they appeared to be.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

One of my favorite writers. I loved this book. We have a Staff Picks brochure here at our library. That we update once a year. This was the first new title to go on my recommendations. I loved how the two parts came together, with the mystery of the murder investigation and the love story too.

What to say about this book? This is the first Kate Morton book I've read. My thoughts are the book was too long and dragged on and on and just when I got to the good part (about the last 100 pages) it picked up and I didn't want it to end. I think the focus on all the details in the first 300 pages could have been trimmed down so that it would have allowed for more at the end. I wished there would have been more focus on Polly and Jess's relationship instead of waiting until the very end.

Probably my favorite Kate Morton book yet! Riveting story, memorable characters, and a surprise ending that made me want to read it again.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. I’ve never read a Kate Morton novel until now. Now, I want to read all of them. The novel takes place in two separate times, one where we learn of the unsolved murders of the Turner Family years ago and one where we learn of Nora, Polly and Jess. Nora, the patriarch of the family, mother to Polly and grandmother to Jess. And as these two timelines come together, we learn that family secrets, no matter how hard we try to keep buried, always come to light. I absolutely enjoyed every minute of this well written, intriguing story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kate Morton for this digital ARC.

As a long-time Kate Morton fan, I had high hopes for Homecoming. Imagine my disappointment when I just couldn't get in to it like all the others! This book just didn't do it for me.

This was a great book and I enjoyed reading it! I look forward to seeing what this author comes out with next.

I have read Kate Morton's books religiously since finding her many years ago in Blackstone's in Edinburgh. Her stories are always so rich and detailed. Homecoming was no exception. Jess, a fortyish Australian, is summoned home from England when her grandmother takes a fall. Jess was mainly raised by her grandmother, Nora. Nora is a Force to be Reckoned With and influenced Jess's life as well as that of her own mother. Jess finds there are many secrets that Nora has kept from her including a family deaths in Southern Australia. What follows is Jess learning her own history while coming to grips with what she wants from her life.

I honestly do not have anything to say about this book. I found it boring and nothing about it interested me.

Kate Morton does it again!! I won an advanced reader copy of her newest book and just finished the beautiful novel. It masterfully weaves past and present together and absolutely dazzles with its writing. Full of loss, love, sorrow, joy, some mystery, and, ultimately, redemption, this book is a must for your 2023 reading list! thank you to @marinerbooks !!!

HOMECOMING BY KATE MORTON

Homecoming is an epic story that is by far one of the best by Kate Morton - a highly anticipated read that far exceeded any expectations. This is a true epic story that covered two timelines in 1959 then in the present at 2018. The way the stories converged was brilliant alongside a story within this story really captured this intense crime fiction, family secrets, and so much more!

A truly brilliant work by a master storyteller.

Morton has a way with prose unlike any other author I've read. Her latest book is a shining example of her skill in weaving a story of family, loss, and intrigue. Highly recommended.

Not my favorite Kate Morton. She painted the scene and the characters beautifully, but the real mystery of the book was the whereabouts of the missing baby, not on the murder - and that was easily figured out. 60% of my reading experience was frustration over the too-easy breadcrumbs that were being dropped. Even so, I'm glad I finished it. The missing pieces slotted in so perfectly in the last chapters, leaving me with an unexpected feeling of peace.

Morton is always a dependable five star read!
Set in Australia on Christmas Eve day, a family picnic turns to tragedy when a young mother and three of her children die mysteriously. The fourth child, a six week old baby is missing. A small country town is thrown into mourning and fear. This is a generational tale, similar to Morton’s Forgotten Garden in that it focuses on the relationship between a Grandmother and her grown granddaughter who feels neglected by her mother.
Highly recommend all of Morton’s novels.

I was so excited for this new book by Kate Morton. I have loved all of her books and this one definitely did not disappoint. It was a little slow in the beginning, but it definitely needed to be exactly how it was to set up everything in the story for the way it all ended. I am definitely a Kate Morton fan.

Kate Morton writes wonderful historic fiction. They are family oriented and usually have a mystery attached. Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.
Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital. Jess decides to explore this story when she goes back to Australia. It's an interesting story with a few twists. An enjoyable read that is easy to follow.