The Lake House by Kate Morton is the mysterious and enchanting fifth novel from the number one bestselling author of The House at Riverton and The Secret Keeper.

A missing child . . .

June 1933, and the Edevane family's country house, Loeanneth, is polished and gleaming, ready for the much-anticipated Midsummer Eve party. Alice Edevane, sixteen years old and a budding writer, is especially excited. Not only has she worked out the perfect twist for her novel, she's also fallen helplessly in love with someone she shouldn't. But by the time midnight strikes and fireworks light up the night skies, the Edevane family will have suffered a loss so great that they leave Loeanneth forever.
An abandoned house . . .

Seventy years later, after a particularly troubling case, Sadie Sparrow is sent on an enforced break from her job with the Metropolitan Police. She retreats to her beloved grandfather's cottage in Cornwall but soon finds herself at a loose end. Until one day, Sadie stumbles upon an abandoned house surrounded by overgrown gardens and dense woods, and learns the story of a baby boy who disappeared without a trace.

An unsolved mystery . . .
Meanwhile, in the attic writing room of her elegant Hampstead home, the formidable Alice Edevane, now an old lady, leads a life as neatly plotted as the bestselling detective novels she writes. Until a young police detective starts asking questions about her family's past, seeking to resurrect the complex tangle of secrets Alice has spent her life trying to escape...

Well, I think I had the same "problems" as other readers. The constant change of time did irritate me. Ever so often I had to look up in which year we were at the moment...
The story itself was ok, two different crimes woven into each other. I must admit that I didn't like Sadie Sparrow so much. Her attitude and her behaviour, her way of living is something I cannot understand.
The end was - in my opinion - a bit too constructed, the coincidences a bit too many.

On its way to Switzerland!

Happy Reading...

This came in yesterday. I don't see who else is signed up for this, but I have a ring or two (and some work-related reading) to tackle first. Thanks for sending and please let me know who is waiting for this. If no one is, I might save it as a holiday read.

Quite the to-ing and fro-ing and a fair number of red herrings in this double decker whodunnit, whodunnwhat. I did enjoy the read, and found the atmosphere quite haunting. The ending, although it turned out almost exactly as I predicted, was a bit too pat. It was nice to be right, though.
This is here as a bookcrossing ring. I think it next crosses the ocean, but I'm not sure who's next in line.

This is now making its way back to Germany before continuing its adventures further afield. Thanks for making this available and letting me stick to European postage.

And here it is again... actually already for a few days.. just hadn't had the time to register it...
thanks for sending it, penelope!

and off it goes to the States :-)

Happy Travelling!

The book has arrived---thank you! I'm not sure if there is someone after me in the ring but I'll see what I can find on the forums.

I've just finished reading this 599 page doorstop and am feeling both satisfied and frustrated.

I've read all of Kate Morton's books---she's an absolute genius and I'm on needles and pins every time she releases something. I love the mysterious modern gothic style of The Lake House---the old house, old lady, young girl, hint of romance, layered mystery---and it's set in du Maurier's Cornwall to boot! All of these elements combine to make the story wonderful in so many ways. 599 pages finished in just four days---for a mother of nine, that indicates precious time devoted to a great story!

The frustrating part was that, besides a tiny surprise having to do with the character Theo toward the end, I had it all figured out about page 400. Every time I read something from Kate Morton, I think I have it figured out---only to be blown away at the end by twists and turns that I never saw coming. With The Lake House, I was met with let down after let down for 200 pages as I found that I actually had figured out the mysteries before the characters did. One reason I adore her stories is because they're some of the few that aren't predictable---not that I'd call this one predictable, not at all. Perhaps the fault is in myself and I've just become better at sleuthing over the years!

Other readers have mentioned the frustrating jumps in timeline. This is Morton's style and I've found it helpful to really take my time with the first few chapters---cementing the characters and dates in my mind until I've got the timeline figured out. This one did jump around quite a bit, but I never found it confusing.

I also really enjoyed picking out all the parallels to the real life story of Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and Alice Liddel's family. It was very loosely there---but both Ben and Llewellyn served as Dodgson-esque characters; while Morton's Alice, complete with close relationships with an older and a younger sister, served to both men the "two sides" of Alice that modern day rumors hint at.

Overall, I loved The Lake House---just as I've loved all her other stories. As I'm at the end of the book ray, I'll set this aside to release soon.

Sending this wishlist book to jennannej! Enjoy!

To the finder of this book:

This book is gift, no strings attached, from me to you. You may keep it forever, pass it along to a friend, or release it into the wild to be found by someone else.

If you are new to BookCrossing, welcome! Enjoy the site, the book, and the BookCrossing community. I hope you'll join us...it's free! If you do, please consider using me, elizardbreath, as your referring member. You can even remain anonymous if you wish!

I hope you'll make a brief journal entry so all the previous and future readers can track this book's journey.

Thanks, and Happy BookCrossing! :)

Oh yes! Super excited to read. I enjoy Kate Morton. Thank you for the lovely book, elizardbreath!

As always with Kate Morton, a twisty tale, spanning decades. The part that I found most confusing was that both in the modern and in the 1930s eras, there were hints of mysteries and backstories that we were not privy to. And as we looked back at the 1930s, we never looked back chronologically, instead bouncing back and forth across the 20s-40s. There was a lot to keep track of and the ending wrapped up way too neatly and coincidentally. But, forgivable because it is fun.

Passed on to Marla last week at book club.