Author Profile : Kate Morton

I (Julie) have recently read all four of Kate Morton's books and really enjoyed every one.  Kate Morton is an Australian author whose books are based mostly in England.  Her writing style is very enjoyable.  She slowly, but steadily draws the reader towards the culmination of the mysteries of her books.  I had a hard time putting them down.

Ms. Morton's first book is The House at Riverton (2006).  First published in Australia as The Shifting Fog, The House at Riverton is the story of Grace.  In 1914, Grace becomes at housemaid at Riverton and for the next ten years finds her life inextricably intertwined with the lives of the daughters of Riverton, Hannah and Emmeline Hartford.  However, when we first meet Grace she is living in a nursing home, a woman in her 90's.  A filmmaker has contacted her, asking for her remembrances of 1924, the year a noted poet killed himself at Riverton.  Grace takes the reader back in her memory to the time of WWI, the changing society, women's suffrage, and upheaval at Riverton.  As she reaches the climax, she reveals her own role in the events that led to the poet's death, and the guilt she has never been able to move past.

2008's The Forgotten Garden is the story of Nell.  At four years old, Nell was found on a dock in Queensland, Australia.  All she has with her is a white suitcase containing a book of fairy tales.  She is clearly not Australian, and when no one comes forward to claim her she is adopted by the dockmaster and his family.  In adulthood, Nell is beginning to trace her past when she becomes the unexpected guardian of her granddaughter and must abandon her search.  After her death, her granddaughter Cassandra travels to England to find her grandmother's roots.  What she finds is a crumbling cottage and more mystery.

The Distant Hours, published in 2010, might be my favorite of Ms. Morton's books.  It is the story of Edie and the mother she sees every day, but doesn't really know.  It is also the story of the three Blythe sisters.  Spinsters who have lived most of their lives together, the elder twins care for their younger sister, Juniper, who has never recovered from her fiancé's betrayal in 1941.  Edie discovers that her mother was evacuated to the Blythe's Milderhurst castle during the WWII evacuation of children from London.  When her mother will not talk about her history, Edie visits the sisters and discovers that her mother's past is not the only secret the castle is hiding.

Ms. Morton's most recent work is The Secret Keeper, published in 2012.  In the 1960's, teenage Laurel witnesses her mother's murder of an unexpected visitor.  She has never forgotten what she saw, but 50 years later, she still has no explanation for what happened.  Her mother, Dorothy, is on her deathbed, and Laurel begins researching Dorothy's life in pre-WWII London.  Who is the mysterious Vivien Jenkins?  Henry Jenkins? Jimmy?  What happens to them during the war and what role do they all play in the events of the 1960's?

All four books are available at Franklin County Library.