I usually open with a brief outline of what you can expect from a novel. If you have read any of Kate Morton's previous books, then you already know what to expect. As one of my friends and book club members said, "There's an old house, and something has happened at the house in the past, and someone from the present day is trying to find out what happened." In this novel. Jess is a young journalist. Her grandmother has just been recently hospitalized, and Jess rushes to her bedside. Her grandmother mumbles some words that Jess can't understand. Back at her grandmother's grand house, she uncovers a journal that details a horrific police case that involved her grandmother's family. Jess decides that this might make an intriguing story and decides to dig deeper into the matter.

Kate Morton is undoubtedly good at developing mood and setting. Her portraits of the house and the eerieness that surrounded it were well-developed. This book sometimes reads like a cozy mystery as the reader tries to figure out "who dunnit."

If you have enjoyed Kate Morton's books in the past, you will enjoy this one too. There is nothing new that she is offering readers, only a familiar formula that has worked for her in the past. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A terrible family tragedy and the secrets that surround it lie at the heart of this saga set in Australia that sprawls across 60 years.

On Christmas Eve day, 1959, in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia, a family—mother, three children and a tiny infant in a basket—set out for a picnic at the willow-lined creek on their estate to escape the melting heat. Hours later, a local man happens on the scene and finds the family dead, with no signs of violence, and the baby missing. Searchers immediately begin the hunt, and the police begin their investigation into what happened. The baby is never found, and there is never a satisfactory answer about how the rest of the family died.

Jump ahead 60 years. Jess is an Australian journalist who has been living in London and working in journalism for 20 years. Her marriage has fallen apart, her career is suffering from the waves of change buffeting journalism and she’s casting about looking for her next writing project, when she gets a dreaded phone call from Sydney. Her beloved elderly grandmother, Nora, who raised her, has had a fall and is hospitalized in very serious condition. Jess immediately hops on a plane for Australia to be with her. While she’s there, she happens across a decades-old true crime book written about the deaths of 60 years before and is intrigued enough to start looking into it, investigative journalistic skills at the fore. She suspects there’s a link to her own family, but her grandmother is unconscious and can’t answer questions. The hunt is on—again.

The events jump back and forth between the two timelines (in typical Kate Morton style), and while I was able to guess some of the answers fairly early on, there was plenty left to uncover, which kept me eagerly reading to the end. But this is not a murder mystery; rather, it’s a domestic drama, with well-drawn characters and intrigue and family secrets aplenty. If you’re a Kate Morton fan, you’ll really love this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. Scheduled for publication on April 3.

This sad tragic story set during Christmas had me hooked from the beginning. With its many time lines and family history you will definitely want to pay attention to Kate Morton’s Homecoming. The mystery of the murder will have you guess what happened right to the end.

Kate Morton's Homecoming comes out April 4. I was lucky enough to read an e-arc, thanks to @netgalley .

A number of remarkable women are at the centre of Homecoming. The action moves between South Australia in the late 50's and modern day Sydney. Jess, a journalist approaching 40, finds herself at loose ends in London, England. She's unexpectedly single and trying to make mortgage payments writing freelance when she gets the call from Australia telling her that the grandmother who raised her is in hospital. Nora has apparently fallen while trying to find something in her attic. Isabel flies to Sydney to support Nora and finds an unexpected mystery around her family history involving the death of a wealthy family in 1959.

The story goes back and forth between Jess' investigation and the actual events of 1959. There is a "book within a book" device, as Jess reads another writer's account of the story she is unraveling. There are multiple perspectives on the same event, which is both compelling and frustrating at times. I found myself flipping back and forth as pieces started to slot into place.

Homecoming is about identity and place and family and the lengths you might go to to protect people you love or to keep their secrets. I did not completely figure out the mystery until the final pages, which was rewarding.

If you are a Morton fan, this is a must-read. If you haven't discovered her particular spin on family histories, this would be a great place to start. 4 and a half stars (it takes a while to get going.

Kate Morton has been one of my favourite authors for years. Her beautiful descriptions, her settings all combined with dual timeline mysteries are the perfect mix for me! I never get tired of trying to figure out how the two timelines are connected. Her endings are always full of surprises and yet leave you fully satisfied. She has a way of making a house a main characte that I absolutely love. Family tragedy is the backdrop for self discovery in our main character Jess as she embarks on what happened on Christmas Eve 1959.

That being said Homecoming felt long to me. I'm not sure how to describe it because I was interested in every part of the story but the over all pacing felt like it wasn't going fast enough. However, I have been waiting for this book for a long time and I enjoyed it!

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy!

This book hit all the right spots for me.

I absolutely fell in love with the main characters, Jess and Percy, but I also connected with Nora and Isabelle through the book and journals.
There's a sense of loss and heartbreak throughout the entire book. One plot twist is predictable, but the ending caught me by surprise. It almost felt rushed at the end after reading at such a cozy and slow pace.

The two timelines were woven together masterfully, and the very vivid descriptions make you feel like you are there with them. The scene depicting the ants on the wrists gave me shivers.

Could it have been shorter? Probably. Would I have loved the characters as much if it had been? Possibly not! You do wonder what Jess's mother's life would have been like had she known the truth.

A book I would read again and discover things I missed the first time around.

Set in Australia in two time eras (1959 and 2018), this mystery about the poisoning deaths of a woman and her three children, the disappearance of the baby, and their connection to a woman's grandmother is a great read.

Jess was raised by her grandmother, and so comes rushing home when she gets the news that her grandmother has had a fall and is unresponsive in the hospital. As she puts the pieces together about the mystery surrounding her fall, she stumbles across the decades-old tragedy and sets out to find what is the connection between it and her grandmother.

Kate Morton is a masterful storyteller. Some parts of the story were predictable, but there were a few twists that got me! Highly recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley, Mariner Books and the author for an advance digital copy.

4.5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed diving into Kate Martin's latest book, Homecoming. While I wasn't a huge fan of her previous work, The Clockmaker's Daughter, this highly anticipated release of 2023 did not disappoint. At 560 pages with smaller than normal font, this book is not for the faint of heart, but it is certainly worth the commitment.

Told from multiple points of view and through various time periods, Kate Morton has once again woven a complex story filled with mystery, likeable characters, and a secluded mansion. This was definitely a slow burn read, not just because of its size, but because Morton took the time to develop her characters and create an atmosphere that has me itching to visit Australia.

Homecoming is a story of loss, not just in the present day, but also in 1959 following the deaths of a young family. It is a story of the mystery surrounding not just what took place 60 years ago, but the repercussions that followed through the decades. It is a multi-generational story that is detail-oriented, with Morton's trademark writing style that kept me captivated along with plenty of red herrings scattered throughout. Morton has a great knack for weaving memories within chapters flawlessly.

The only reason I am giving this book 4 1/2 stars is that it could have been a little bit shorter. However, the gorgeous cover and the print ARC from Simon & Schuster CA made up for it.

A few years ago I went on a reading streak of Kate Morton books. I read 3 of them in a very short time. I love historical novels, I love stories with secrets and stories with surprising twists.

I was excited to be able to read this newest book by Ms. Morton. The description contained all the elements I love in a good book. And, this book is 500 pages……I couldn't wait to lose myself in the story.

Sadly, it fell flat for me. There were far too many words used. I found the timelines confusing. There were 2 central timelines but the characters in each timeline kept going back with memories, which were hard to keep straight in my mind. I had to keep re-reading passages because I was not sure what I had just read.

I liked the characters, Jess in the present, and Percy in the past. I was looking forward to how it was going to come together. But, it took much too long to get there. I kept losing interest.

I see a lot of positive reviews for Homecoming. I'm glad others enjoyed it and gave excellent reviews. I have always said that Every book is not meant for everybody. I'm disappointed that this book was not meant for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

Home coming by Kate Morton was a hauntingly beautiful historical fiction novel told in two different time periods.

The book begins with Percy (who lives in the past) who is a lovely man from the small town of Tambila comes across a mother and her children dead beside a pond while appearing to have been previously enjoying a cute Christmas Eve picnic together. Jess lives in present day and is visiting her sick grandmother when her grandma mentions the house at which the tragedy occurred at. Jess spends her time investigating this cold case to try and determine what happened to the family that gorgeous Christmas Eve day, why did he happen and most of all, why is her grandma mentioning it while in hospital.

Morton weaves both stories together so beautifully that I was turning the pages so quickly to find out how it was going to end. Morton uses very descriptive language throughout this novel to help depict beautiful settings. At 560 pages, this book was lengthy and longer than most books I choose for myself but once I got into the story, I was less bothered about the length. There were quite a few characters so I ended up having to make myself a family tree to keep everyone straight. Other than those two minor drawbacks, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would love to read more by her! Overall this book is receiving a 4.5 from me! Thank you to Kate Morton, Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for this advanced copy. Homecoming hits the shelves on April 4th and I highly recommend you put it at the top of your TBR list!

Kate Morton is a born story teller that has you lost in the story and sad when the book is finished.

The Homecoming is no exception.

When you aren't reading you will be thinking about the big cast of characters that will steal your heart.

The story is told in two time lines: in 1969 and 2018 and I was totally invested in both stories.

1969 a tragic event occurs that effects the entire town and specifically Jesse's grandmother Nora.

2018 Nora has had a fall is in hospital and Jessica has gone home to care for her and try and discover what is bothering her grandmother so much.

The book is full of family, secrets, lies and so much more.

Clear your schedule today and put Homecoming to the very top of your TBR list and hope nobody interrupts your reading.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada, Simon & Schuster for an outstanding read.

I wanted to love this book with all my heart. But I didn't and I'm sad about it! Right from the beginning I was confused by the way the dates were written, New Years and Christmas Eve. The middle was long, long, long. Too long. Kate Morton's books are usually long, but it just seemed like there was a lot of information that could've been cut out. I didn't enjoy the book inside the book as well as I thought there were too many perspectives because of that. I had a hard time connecting to Jess, the main character. Polly's character really wasn't explored much until towards the end and that was too bad because I found her more interesting. The last 20% of the book definitely got more interesting, it was just a slog at times to get there.
I'd recommend reading this as a slow and steady. Still thankful for receiving the advanced copy from NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada. This novel comes out April 4, 2023.

Kate Morton's latest novel is a very satisfying read. It's slow-paced but I was completely caught up in the narrative within the first few pages and found it very hard to set down!

Homecoming takes place over two timelines - 1959 and 2018. The book opens on Christmas Eve 1959 with the mysterious death of a family in Tambilla, a small, tight-knit community in South Australia, and then transitions to London in 2018 and Jess, a journalist. who travels home to Australia when her beloved 89 year-old grandmother, Nora, is hospitalized after a fall. Upon arrival in Sydney, Jess learns that her grandmother was upset prior to her accident and is determined to find out why. Jess's digging leads to the discovery of a crime story written by a journalist about the events in 1959 and her own family's connection to the tragedy. Lengthy excerpts from the crime book are included as a story within a story as Jess reads and conducts research trying to piece together what happened. The story moves deftly back and forth in time as we slowly learn what happened to the Turner family and how that impacted the lives of Jess, her estranged mother Polly and her grandmother, Nora.

Morton writes beautifully as she weaves together a crime story with themes relating to motherhood, family secrets and lies. The most compelling aspect of Homecoming for me, however, was the mystery of what really had happened in 1959. I was able to partially figure it out but some of the details of how had me stumped and there were still a few twists that took me quite by surprise. Homecoming also has a very strong sense of place - I felt that I was transported to this small Australian town. The book is long - around 550 pages and is a bit slow in the middle but picks up dramatically as the mystery unravels in the last 100 or so pages of the book to a very satisfactory conclusion.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of 'Homecoming' by Kate Morton.

I'm afraid this book ended up on my DNF list. I tried to get into it multiple times over a three week period but it wasn't holding my attention. It's disappointing because I am curious about the murder mystery aspect of the novel but it is so bogged down with time jumps and reminiscing that I lose interest. The dual time line hasn't be executed well (in my opinion). The issue is some chapters set in the present also contain too 'in the past' information. All in all the book rambles on too much and progresses too slowly.

I hope one day though I'll come back to this novel and be in the right frame of mind to finish it.

Just Wow. A page turner. This years must read! Gut wrenching. So many twists and turns. Just when you have it all figured out, it goes in a totally different direction. Fell in love with all of the characters flaws and all. I can definitely see this on the big screen. Loved it.

I think this is my favorite Kate Morton book of all. In her usual style, Morton weaves a tale of past and present and family secrets that was quite enjoyable. I like the book within a book element and the many layers to this story, I did get a bit annoyed with a few of the characters, but overall, it was a satisfying read.

Thank you net galley for giving me this oportunity to read Kate Morton's newest book.
I have to say firstly that I found the book slow to get going, but once it did I couldn't put it down.
It's Christmas Eve in a small town in Austrailia. A local man is out for a walk and comes across a family of four laying still "as if they eere dead".
The story is a dual timeline between December 24, 2959 and 2018.
Jess is a journalist from London and has found herself out of a job. She gets a phone call that her beloved grandma Nora has been admitted to the hospital. Jess goes to Austrailia to be with her. Jess goes on a hunt to try to figure out why her grandma would climb the stairs to the attic.
If I could I would give this book a 4 1/2 stars. But because it started off slow I will give it 4 stars but really deserves 4 1/2.

This book was good, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. Although the event that the mystery focuses around was tragic, it had a gentle, cozy mystery feel to me; not much suspense or surprise.

I really enjoyed the ending, loved the mother and daughter relationships and the scene setting was written beautifully. I have never been to Australia, but I could imagine the place clearly.

However, I found that for me personally, I had seen everything coming that happened, so the mystery part of the book fell pretty flat. The book didn't really seem to start picking up until the 80% mark, and I feel like it could have been shorter in the chapters before that. There seemed to be a lot of extra writing and facts in the first two thirds of the book, and it didn't quite seem plot based or character based, but definitely leaned more in the character direction.

I received a copy of the book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

Quite a tangle web to unravel. This is what Jess set out to do when her grandmother Nora who lived in Australia, became ill Jess had left Australia about 20 years before to live in London. She wanted to find out who her father was, Nora would never tell, so she came with many questions. Her Mom, Polly, had left her with Nora when she was quite young and she had had little to do with her.
A mysterious event had occurred before Polly was born. And Jess was determined to get to the bottom of it. She had help, as a book had already been written providing some of the answers.
The story goes back and fore to when Polly was born to the present, and the mystery is gradual solved. A very well written novel, which will capture your imagination. Kate Morton is without doubt an first class mystery writer.

"The landscape of books is more real, in some ways, than the one outside the window. It isn't experienced at a remove; it's internal, vital." I have spent the past week with Nora, Polly, and Jess in southeastern Australia and like Jess I have read a book that takes me to that place so I would recognize the geography and the people there if I were to go there in reality. Jess, estranged from her mother, Polly, gets word that her grandmother, Nora, has fallen and is in the hospital in Australia. Jess leaves her home in London to go to Nora's bedside, convinced that she will be there only a short while before Nora is well enough to go home again. After all, Nora is a take charge person and not even a fall will keep her down for long. But Jess learns there are secrets she didn't know and she won't stop until she finds out the truth.
While this story takes place in two different time periods, the past is written as excerpts from a book, mostly, and also from the reporter's notes. It fills in the gaps in Jess's knowledge of her mother's and grandmother's lives that they kept from her. Each of the women's characters are well developed with their backgrounds given so it's easy to see why they make the decisions they make. Morton is a very thorough researcher and a writer who takes her time to set the background in place. She handles her characters with truth and compassion recognizing that all of them are a grey mixture of good and bad. Bad actions can spring from good intentions. I loved this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book. The opinions expressed are mine alone.