A family saga full of secrets and lies told from many perspectives. All this happens in the wonderful setting of Australia with great description. It’s a big thick read but the storyline kept me turning the pages and kept my interest from start to finish. Another fantastic read by this brilliant author.
Thank you t Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Homecoming by Kate Morton is a book about motherhood and secrets set in Australia with a dual time line. The book opens in 1959 on Christmas Eve, where a local delivery man makes a shocking discovery on the grounds of a local mansion, a mother and her children are lying dead among the remains of a picnic, apart from the baby who has disappeared, presumably dragged away by wild dogs. The small town is thrown into a state of shock but the cause of the deaths is never fully established. Sixty years later a young journalist named Jess with a familial connection to the tragic event is summoned back to Australia to say goodbye to her ailing grandmother, the woman who raised her. Unaware of the family history she is perturbed by some of the delirious statements made by her grandmother, and soon she is knee deep into an investigation of the unsolved murders that will open more than one can of worms.
This is a slow burning mystery that entices the reader , dropping hints and clues along the way. While I had figured out the main "twist" early on, as it is pretty obvious, there were still one or two surprises along the way that I did not see coming. I really liked the use of three generations of family to tell the story as it showed the long lasting repercussions of decisions made while in a state of shock and grief. The characters were believable, they all had shades of grey, some darker than others, which made them interesting to read about. While the slow pacing may not be to everyone's taste, it does allow the reader to build up anticipation and really immerse themselves in another time and place.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I was so excited to read this book, I love getting lost in Kate Morton's books - the way she can pull you in to a time and place, the atmosphere of her settings becoming so tangible, is a great reading experience.

I think that's what was missing in The Clockmakers Daughter that was really back in this book - for the first time both settings that we spend a lot of time in are set in Australia. The authors love for her home, her instinsic connection to these places and the exploration of that feeling for her characters was great. I feel like I've been to these stately houses, swam in the waterhole, walked around the rose garden and hidden in the attic.

The large cast of characters of the small town of Tambilla were great - they become this moving, eccentric backdrop to the setting of Halcyon. The locals confusion about what happened really feeds into the reader's experience of the mystery. I particularly loved Percy, he's a love.

I didn't like the central family as much, I never felt I fully got to know any of them so I wasn't wholeheartedly sure about what I thought their actions would be, and this really made me pay close attention to the mystery element kf the book.

I think this was a mistake, because I was then really sure what was going on very early in the book. If I'd read this as historical fiction and not as a whodunit to solve, I think I would have appreciated its twists and turns more.

If you love a long, detailed narrative with excellent settings, but you don't need a hard to solve mystery, this one is for you. It is very long, I think the middle third could have been edited down a lit because the beginning and end portions were really, really strong and I was invested for them, but it lost me for a while in the middle.

I have read several Kate Morton books in the past and generally enjoy both her stories and the changing eras. However, this one was a slog for me. Unfortunately i just didn't enjoy the main character, she left flat and boring. And the story felt very drawn out with the multiple time periods feeling jarring in this instance.

There were many formatting in errors or spelling issues in the copy I read. Letters were missed out in the book within the book. I'm unsure if this was some code within the story the character was writing or a genuine formatting error. Whatever it was it made the book very difficult to read in those instances.

All that being said, I am glad i stuck with the story. The ending and 'wrapping up' was an amazingly sad story that did weave together all the individual elements of the story.

Grab this book for a bedside table read. I probably wont keep you up all night and a few chapters a night may make it go faster. However you read it be sure to stick with it as the ending is worth it.

Excellent family drama set in australia ,a mystery death of a woman and her children , a lost baby whose bones turn up 20 years later a granddaughter a grandmother and a mother whose life is full of tension and more drama .!whats not to love .

This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review. Thanks to the publisher for the copy. What a gorgeous book! The author has a great gift for characterisation - nuanced, interesting, believable people. Thanks to a great author we have warmth, wisdom and emotional intelligence, this book was a huge pleasure to read!

I jumped at a chance to read a pre-release of a Kate Morton story! I am a big fan of her previous stories and Homecoming again presented the reader with a mystery surrounding an old house set in dual timelines that slowly reveal the truth. Some of the twists I guessed before they were revealed but as ever they just keep coming right up until the end. One for all Kate Morton fans and those that enjoy a mystery. I also like other reviewers had the missing letters in parts of the story which affected the flow of the story somewhat as I guessed what the correct words were. Many thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

Another absolutely wonderful story by the incredibly talented Kate Morton. I loved how this was told through many different perspectives, and I felt fully immersed in the story. Kate has such an incredible way with words which allowed me to fully imagine myself right there in Australia, Darling Hoise and Halcyon. I loved the mystery and build up to an ending and outcome I did not see.

I have read and enjoyed Kate Morton’s books before but I found this a struggle. It seemed very long and it was hard to keep going with it. I couldn’t get into the characters lives. There were many mistakes in the text which didn’t help. The central mystery was not much of a mystery at all!

I have loved every one of Kate Mortons books that I've read - her stories just pulled me in and kept me glued to the very last page - but this one...
THIS ONE was wonderful - time slip, over and back and it seems everyone has a secret and everyone has told lies, it is just twist and turn the whole way through right to the final delicious ending. An extravaganza to lose yourself in.

Having read ‘The Clockmaker’s Daughter’ two years ago and loved it, and before that several of the earlier novels by Kate Morton, I had been very much looking forward to reading ‘Homecoming’. Unfortunately, this book is in a different league, and it became a struggle to get to the end of a story that felt meandering and padded.

Jess returns to Sydney, Australia, from London in 2018 when her grandmother, Nora, was hospitalised, having fallen while trying to access her attic. Jess cannot understand why her grandmother, who had brought her up single-handed when her mother had been unable to do so, would have wanted to go into the attic. This, plus her grandmother’s disorientated remarks, builds in Jess the desire to find out what happened on Christmas Eve in 1959, at Halycon, Nora’s house in Adelaide Hills.

The reader is taken to the garden of Halycon, and to the terrible discovery by the creek at the end of a scorching day, of the bodies of a young mother and her children, all apparently asleep, but in reality dead, the traces of their picnic scattered around them. The baby’s basket was hanging from a branch, but the baby is missing.

Jess’s mission is to find out what happened to the Turners, and in this she is helped by a book she finds which charts the story of the Turner family.

The novel felt interminable at times. There is so much meandering from the story line, so many names, some with stories of their own, some mentioned only in passing, that the pace is slow. It picks up towards the end, but the denouement, some of which will have been predicted long before then, was a rather rushed jumble of names of characters, some of whom had been no more than glanced at earlier in the book, and the explanatory information.

The book is very well written, as one has come to expect from a Kate Morton novel, but at half the length, and stripped of many of the digressions, it would have been a much better paced novel.

Homecoming by Katie Morton

I was very excited to read this new book by Kate Morton, as her books are always so beautifully written, and this was no exception. Told across two timelines, we are in 1959 where Nora is a young pregnant lady, coming to stay with her sister in law, and family, while she has her baby, and 1918 where Nora is in hospital unwell, and her Granddaughter Jess flies from the UK, where she has been living and working as a journalist, to be with her beloved Grandmother who brought her up.

Whilst staying at her Grandmother's house, Jess finds a book chronicling the events of 1959, when Nora's sister-in-law and her children were found dead by the creek after having a picnic. The case was never satisfactorily resolved, and Jess in true journalistic style starts digging into the past to find out more.

This book has everything to keep you enthralled. A murder mystery with secrets, lies, and a few red herrings. Some secret love and illicit affairs. Some very likable and relatable characters. Most of all, beautiful writing.

My advanced copy was marred by the fact that for some reason all the ff, fi and fl had been removed! Sometimes it was tricky to guess what a word should be!! Very annoying.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61683285-homecoming

Set between 1959 South Australia and present day 2018 a gripping, twisting and mysterious story unfolds. When Nora takes a fall and ends up in hospital, her beloved granddaughter Jess makes the journey back to Australia from England, where she works as a journalist, to be by her side. With concern that something was bothering Nora in her final days, Jess starts to uncover dark family secrets little by little. We learn quickly that back in 1959 Nora’s sister in law Isabel Turner and her 3 children died under suspicious circumstances. Obsessed with learning the truth about her grandmother’s past and her family history Jess embarks on a journey to discover the truth behind what really took place all those years ago in the Adelaide Hills.
This is the first novel by Kate Morton that I have read and let me tell you I will be running to buy more. Her writing is lyrical and beautiful and the characters she created here were fascinating, especially Nora. I felt so absorbed in the story. It is a big book – at 656 pages, and I had to pause it twice to read two different book club books but the story stayed so fresh in my mind that I was able to jump right back in. I will definitely be buying this book as a gift for friends when it is released next month. My only slight gripe was it felt a little too long in parts, but that was maybe just because I was dying to have the answers to all of my burning questions! I would highly recommend picking this book up, I will definitely be buying it as gifts for friends!

Homecoming is Kate Morton's latest dual narrative, historical fiction offering. Like The Lake House and The Clockmaker's Daughter it is set across two timelines and in this case, countries. It starts in Southern Australia in the late 1950s on Christmas Eve and joins up with a modern day narrative in 2018.

The story centres around a murder mystery in which an entire family is found lying dead in their Christmas Eve picnic spot, and how this becomes connected to the modern day heroine, Jess Turner-Bridges. She has come back to Australia, having lived in London for the past 20 years after the grandmother who raised her has suffered a debilitating fall and slipped into a coma. As Jess explores some of the secrets her family never talked about she starts to uncover a past as devastating as her grandmother's illness is.

I really enjoyed the 2018 storyline and its twists and turns, though found it difficult to get into the 1950s one at first. The pace really gathers up to about 90% of the way through the novel and then I found it a bit bitty and as if the author was trying to tie up all the loose ends of the plot.

Overall, it was another fantastic read by Kate Morton and I'd happily recommend the book. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for giving me an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I first became interested in reading books by this author after I read The Clockmaker's Daughter, a few months ago.

This was a beautifully written book, and reading it felt very much like an escape. There was also another story within the story, and I felt very drawn into that too. There were some nice characters that I liked and identified with.

This was quite a hefty read, so maybe not ideal if you're looking for something light enough to read in one sitting, but I suppose that still depends what kind of reader you are. I would say it's definitely a good choice if you want a book that will help you escape for a little while.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

What a wonderful story.
I was concerned when I saw the number of pages of this book that it would be a long-winded story, but it is a number of stories in one.
I didn't guess that it was a who-dunnit until well into the book, and then my guess was wrong as to what had happened.
Brilliant characters, brilliant storylines. It was quite unusual for me to read a book partly set in Australia that covered so much of the continent.
I will certainly look out for her previous books and any that she writes in the future.
Many thanks to the author for a brilliant book and to the publisher for an advanced copy for honest review.

This book was a slow burn for me. At first I struggled to see the relevance of the two time lines but then I was hooked. A very surprising story that will leave you astounded and in turns grief stricken.
Love in its many guises for your siblings, partners and children are explored right up until the last page. Do you live to someone's expectations of yourself and does it change the course of your life? Memories from different people offer different perspectives of the same event.
I will be looking out for more books by Kate

"The effect was disquieting. She felt a frisson: the strange dissonance, as she looked at the pictures, that the world of Isabel and Thomas Turner, Mr Drumming, Mrs Pile, Betty Diamond and a Mrs Summers was something she'd experienced, rather than a place she'd read about...This was not an e tiredly unfamiliar sensation. It was, Jess suspected, the common preserve of all true readers. This was the magic of books, the curious alchemy that allowed a human mind to turn black ink on white pages into a while other world. Nonetheless, the hold that Tambilla had assumed over her went beyond the usual. She was overcome with an impatient feeling, agitated, an emotion almost like hunger or envy. As if she needed to know everything there was to know, to possess the place;as if she felt she had some right to possess it."

A long-time fan of the author, I jumped at the opportunity to read and ARC of her latest novel and I was not disappointed. This is an epic novel, literally and figuratively. Historical fiction, it includes (absolute joy!)
a book within a book - a fictional true crime novel about the sudden deaths of an entire family, aside from a missing baby, in Southern Australia on Christmas Eve, 1959. There's a 2018 narrative from Australian Jess, living and working as a journalist in London, called home because her beloved Grandma, Nora is ill. Jess finds a mystery to be solved, centred on on a Victorian villa in sylvan grounds and it's occupants, which will uncover long-buried family secrets. At various points in the plot the author provides updates on what each character in that time period is doing, all the more tense knowing what the tragic outcome will be, but not why and who was to blame. It was like a jigsaw puzzle I was invested in completing, watching the pieces slowly slotting into place. This is an evocative and stunning family saga and piece of historical fiction, which the author does so well. Wonderful characterisation, the sun-soaked Southern Australian flora, fauna and landscape combine with small-town, family secrets makes for a compelling novel. I plan to buy my mum a copy when it's published, am sure she will adore it too.

This was an epic tale told across two timelines. At its heart it’s a story about family and bonds that can’t be broken. I figured out the twist just before the end but was interested to see how it played out.

Kate Morton doing what she does best, a beautifully written story of a family with secrets hidden in the past. Jess has lived in England for the past twenty years but a phone call informing her that her beloved grandmother, Nora, is ill in hospital, sees her return to Australia, the country of her birth. Something has upset Nora and Jess is determined to find out what this is. As she starts to dig into the past, Jess discovers unsettling and upsetting secrets that dramatically change Jess's perception of her grandmother but also of her estranged mother, Polly.
Kate Morton's writing style is beautifully fluid and a joy to read. The story is told through two parallel narratives, one concerning Nora and the events of 1959 and the other in the present focusing mostly on Jess. The multiple twists at the end of the story were gripping and significantly upped the pace of the story.
My only grumble with the book is that it was too long. The pace of the story slowed significantly in the middle of the book and I felt a shorter book would have enhanced the reading experience.