Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother’s emotional distance masks an old secret.

Evacuated from London as a thirteen year old girl, Edie’s mother is chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe, and taken to live at Millderhurst Castle with the Blythe family.

Fifty years later, Edie too is drawn to Milderhurst and the eccentric Sisters Blythe. Old ladies now, the three still live together, the twins nursing Juniper, whose abandonment by her fiancé in 1941 plunged her into madness.

Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst Castle, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time for someone to find it . . .


Recommended by my Mum! Another one for Mt Toobie :-)

I don't mind a plot that moves backwards and forwards through time, I don't mind dark family secrets, crumbling piles and gothic atmosphere in a modern novel. I did quite enjoy this but I did feel it was hovering close to cliche and sometimes poor writing. Others have pointed out that they felt this novel is too long and rambling that an editor should have taken a hatchet to it. Maybe so, I don't mind descriptive writing and slow build up but I feel here the problem was just too many mysteries, too many dark secrets, lost loves and childhood traumas, such that there were too many loose threads to tie up at the end and the conclusion was all a bit unsatisfactory. Such a complex story needed more careful management!

I thought most of the characters were drawn well but the narrator Edie was a little bit dull (sorry Edie). It seemed in some ways that the 'character' of the castle rather took over and dominated its human inhabitants. Maybe that was the intention.

Not quite up to the standard of other Kathe Mortons I have read.

Taking to mini meet up at the White Hart on Thursday

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