It took me a while to get into this story but I then could not put it down. I loved the dual time aspect of the story and the characters were believable and interesting.
A mystery which was not unraveled until nearly at the end made for an excellent read.

I have been such a big fan of Kate Morton for years!
I have read every book, and every summer would look forward to her new release, to sit in the sun and devour! But Morton hasn't released a book in such a long time so when I heard this book was coming out I was super excited! I jumped at the chance to read an early review copy.

I have to say, disappointingly I didn't enjoy this book as much I have enjoyed her others. Absolutely gutted! I wasn't as gripped as I usually am. I found the pacing to be very slow, and I struggled to pick up this book to carry on reading at times. There were A LOT of characters to keep track of, and a few of the neighbours were very similar so I struggled to keep up.
There was a lot of family secrets, and it all felt a bit excessive - just when I thought everything was going to get rounded up, a new revelation/family secret was revealed. I didn't really care too much towards the end. I should have been shocked and engrossed, but I just felt it was another thing I didn't really care about, or need to know.

All that being said, I am super grateful that Morton is releasing books again, and I hope that she writes another soon - and hopefully I will enjoy that a lot better, like her back catalogue.

Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek in the grounds of a grand country house, a local man makes a terrible discovery. Police are called, and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most baffling murder investigations in the history of South Australia.

Many years later and thousands of miles away, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for nearly two decades, she now finds herself unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and is seriously ill in hospital.

At Nora’s house, Jess discovers a true crime book chronicling a long-buried police case: the Turner Family Tragedy of 1959. It is only when Jess skims through its pages that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this notorious event — a mystery that has never been satisfactorily resolved.

I loved this story and whizzed through it as fast as I could. I guessed part of the twist quite early on ( and I'm sure I was supposed to) but the extra twist was a delight. This is well written and nicely plotted. I loathed Nora the grandmother ( was I supposed to?) and felt very sorry for poor Polly, so badly treated by her mother. The device of the trie crime book was useful in filling in the gaps to the story and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.

This is the first of Morton's novels I have read but I will read others.

Kate Morton is really good at the family saga tale. The type of story where secrets from the past bubble up into the present. I think Homecoming is her best yet. The narrative moves between past and present, with a diverse cast of characters. It begins in 1959 at a large house near Adelaide. Events there reverberate through the years and when a journalist returns to nurse her gran, she starts to uncover connections and secrets.

Her stories are intricate and complex, with slow reveals which suck the reader in as relationships are blown apart and bonds destroyed. Her books work at every level; a strong sense of time and place, eloquent, seemingly effortless writing, people to believe in and enough twists and turns to keep the plot moving. She has to be one of the finest storytellers of her generation and I look forward to every book she writes. This is an all round winner.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

An epic, immense family saga set in Sydney Australia in 2018 and Adelaide Hills in 1959.
Christmas Eve 1959, Percy Summers stumbles across a tragic scene, a mother and her 2 older children forever asleep and her baby missing. In 2018 Jess returns to Sydney after hearing her Grandmother Nora has had a fall and is in hospital. When she discovers Nora was confused and distressed before her fall Jess turns detective and uses her journalistic skills to see what was troubling her.
This novel is a fairly long read but the pace doesn't move slowly. It is an enjoyable read, perfect for fans of duel timeline novels

Very much looked forward to this new Kate Morton, it has been a long wait. This author is the consummate story teller and here again she didn’t disappoint.
Jess returns to Australia from London when her grandmother takes a tumble and is hospitalised. Seemingly incoherent ramblings leads Jess to question some of her family’s history.
The story switches between two time zones and from several different points of view. At the heart of this novel is a very good story essentially examining family relationships and their complexities. However at times the book dragged and felt repetitive. Most of the historical aspect was told in the form of a book within a book sort of thing which for me didn’t quite work. While this aspect was supposed to be a journalist’s report of the families tragedy it read as a novel, wouldn’t have worked otherwise, but this then had to be explained.
Not sure if it was a download issue or a problem with my own device but for the “book” chapters the letters fi and fl were always missing. Made for annoying and at times challenging reading, think ofcer, ags, ields, ying and heaps others. This only appeared when Daniel Miller’s account was happening so maybe it is a feature.
All in all well worth a read. Enjoy

Thanks to Netgalley.co.uk and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for this review

I’m a huge Kate Morton fan so was very excited to read her latest book. It has a dual timeline running through, so easy to follow and three generations of women – Nora, Polly and Jess.

Unfortunately, I struggled with this book, I felt it dragged for the first half and I almost gave up. I guessed the ending, though not the plot. The second half was much more enjoyable and where things started to happen. I just feel that the first half was padding out, it could have been cut in half. But I didn’t connect with any of the characters. Nora was too good to be true, it was irritating, Jess was self-centred and headstrong and although I felt sorry for Polly, I did wish that she’d stand up for herself, especially as an adult.

There seems to be a formatting issue with the Daniel Miller book – wherever there is supposed to be ff, fl, fi, the characters are missing. So instead of official for example, it says ocial. It made very tricky reading.

I would rate this book 3 stars.

Not your usual historical Kate Morton novel, more a recent history whodunnit with an unusual set up and a huge cast of characters to keep an eye on over two narratives. Not my favourite of hers but always very excited to see what she writes next.

This is a wonderful book, I feel privileged to have had an early read and can’t praise it enough. It’s a dual timeline as are most of her books, this would have been wonderful with either of the storylines but with two and multiple points of view of the same situation gave it so much depth.
No spoilers here, but it’s a family saga from multiple generations and places, with a host of side characters.

High recommend and thank you Netgalley for my kindle copy.

This was a great read. Dual timeline can be tricky but in this case the two time lines merged perfectly, Great characters in both eras, a lovely sense of place and a cracking solution to the mystery

Kate Morton is back with another beautiful family home, weaving across the decades of a family secret. I am a massive fan of Morton’s work- her books evoke such a lovely feeling that you are wrapped up in from the start. Homecoming for me may not be my favourite of her work, but it is still an epic family saga. With an apparent murder suicide of a whole family at its centre, an estranged daughter and mother, and a grandmother who had her own hopes and dreams, this is family drama with so many layers. I really enjoyed it.

A beautifully told book- so well written and engaging.
It alternates between the current day and events that happened to the family of Jess back in 1959..
Jess is a journalist living in London who comes back to Australia when her aunt falls ill and she starts to uncover the family secrets.
The story is told with a tender narrative. The characters are well drawn and relatable. The story weaves how a whole community is impacted by the tragedy in 1959 and how Jess is discovering herself in the present day.
I really enjoyed this book and would thoroughly recommend- you will not be disappointed!

Excellent book with lots of twists and turns. Jess has come to London from Australia to pursue her career as a journalist. When her adored grandmother is taken ill Jess returns to Sidney where she uncovers the details of her and her mother’s past. Both Jess and Norma, the grandmother, have grow distant from Jess’s mother, Polly but the reasons for this distance are only revealed later in the book. The story is set over a period of sixty years when Norma’s sister in law lives with her family of three children and a baby in a small town called Tambilla. Norma is visiting her sister in law when tragedy strikes on a hot summer’s day just before Christmas in 1959. Nearly sixty years later Jess uncovers the details of the event that she knew nothing about despite its direct impact on her family. Kate Morton is a fabulous writer. Her descriptions of places and people are truly fantastic and you really get to know the characters in her books. Homecoming is another of her beautifully crafted books creating real intrigue with the events that have taken place in Tambilla. She does not write very many books but Homecoming is a book worth waiting for. I loved it and didn’t want it to end. Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me an ARC of this book.

I love a story which wanders across the years, and this one was a beautifully told family saga starting in 1959 and ending in 2018. I was surprised by how long the book was, and many books being published at the moment have been shorter, but the mystery and lies surrounding the family drama kept me hooked all the way through this epic novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

I was so looking forward to read this, but unfortunately I cannot say I've enjoyed it!

Homecoming follows the same recipe that Kate Morton;s fans are familiar with: two(or there) narrative threads going back in forth in time; characters intrinsically connected by past events/memories/ family ties. This time round we have a story based in Australia, which I believe is a first for Morton despite being Australian herself. The writing style reminded me a lot of The Secret Keeper and The Clockmaker's Daughter, which in my view are her best books. Solid writing, with gorgeous turns of phrase and lovely descriptions. But story wise, we're back to her previously enjoyable but not challenging narratives of her earlier books and especially The Lake House. I personally found the story very straightforward, easy to anticipate, not many surprises and/or twists to make up for the slow pace and the enormous page count.

This is definitely not a quick read, the hardback copy is a whopping 656 pages long. However, the storyline sucks you in you don’t even realise how much time has passed. This book is everything and more you’ve come to love of a Kate Morton novel, so you definitely won’t be disappointed by her new novel, Homecoming.
It’s set in different time frames, and told from several points of view throughout the book.
2018 following Jess’s journey from London to her grandmothers home, Darling House, to be by her bedside in the hospital after taking a nasty fall.
1959, where Nora, heavily pregnant, is staying with her sister-in-law, Isabel, herself English but having moved to Australia when she married Nora’s brother, Thomas, to see out the the end of her pregnancy and also spend the Christmas holidays with her family.
But from two of the main female protagonists each has a secret, a secret that could blow up not only the past but far reaching consequences into the present day.
As Jess waits at her grandmothers house for visiting hours she decides to try and find out what was so important in the attic that made Nora go up there and resulting in the fall. In her hunt for answers she stumbles across a book written by Daniel Miller called ‘As if they were asleep’. Is that what Nora was trying to find?
As Jess begins to read the book she realises that the book is about her family, featuring a much younger version of her grandmother, Nora. The book leaves Jess with a lot of questions and not very many answers and the journalist in here sends her on a quest into the past to unravel the unsolved case into the tragedy that happened on Christmas eve at Halcyon.
You might like I did and see the plot twist coming, just not the logistics of it, but trust me, that is just the start of the twists. There are more to come bringing surprises along with them!
All in all, this was an excellent read and dare I say it, her best novel to date! It is a bit of an emotional roller coaster but one I didn’t want to end.
If you are a fan of her previous books you are in for a real treat with this one, and anyone who is new to her will soon find themselves ordering her back collection of books.
Homecoming by Kate Morton will be published on 13 April 2023

This is definitely not a quick read, the hardback copy is a whopping 656 pages long. However, the storyline sucks you in you don’t even realise how much time has passed. This book is everything and more you’ve come to love of a Kate Morton novel, so you definitely won’t be disappointed by her new novel, Homecoming.
It’s set in different time frames, and told from several points of view throughout the book.
2018 following Jess’s journey from London to her grandmothers home, Darling House, to be by her bedside in the hospital after taking a nasty fall.
1959, where Nora, heavily pregnant, is staying with her sister-in-law, Isabel, herself English but having moved to Australia when she married Nora’s brother, Thomas, to see out the the end of her pregnancy and also spend the Christmas holidays with her family.
But from two of the main female protagonists each has a secret, a secret that could blow up not only the past but far reaching consequences into the present day.
As Jess waits at her grandmothers house for visiting hours she decides to try and find out what was so important in the attic that made Nora go up there and resulting in the fall. In her hunt for answers she stumbles across a book written by Daniel Miller called ‘As if they were asleep’. Is that what Nora was trying to find?
As Jess begins to read the book she realises that the book is about her family, featuring a much younger version of her grandmother, Nora. The book leaves Jess with a lot of questions and not very many answers and the journalist in here sends her on a quest into the past to unravel the unsolved case into the tragedy that happened on Christmas eve at Halcyon.
You might like I did and see the plot twist coming, just not the logistics of it, but trust me, that is just the start of the twists. There are more to come bringing surprises along with them!
All in all, this was an excellent read and dare I say it, her best novel to date! It is a bit of an emotional roller coaster but one I didn’t want to end.
If you are a fan of her previous books you are in for a real treat with this one, and anyone who is new to her will soon find themselves ordering her back collection of books.
Homecoming by Kate Morton will be published on 13 April 2023

Easily a 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book
This is definitely not a quick read, the hardback copy is a whopping 656 pages long. However, the storyline sucks you in you don’t even realise how much time has passed. This book is everything and more you’ve come to love of a Kate Morton novel, so you definitely won’t be disappointed by her new novel, Homecoming.
It’s set in different time frames, and told from several points of view throughout the book.
2018 following Jess’s journey from London to her grandmothers home, Darling House, to be by her bedside in the hospital after taking a nasty fall.
1959, where Nora, heavily pregnant, is staying with her sister-in-law, Isabel, herself English but having moved to Australia when she married Nora’s brother, Thomas, to see out the the end of her pregnancy and also spend the Christmas holidays with her family.
But from two of the main female protagonists each has a secret, a secret that could blow up not only the past but far reaching consequences into the present day.
As Jess waits at her grandmothers house for visiting hours she decides to try and find out what was so important in the attic that made Nora go up there and resulting in the fall. In her hunt for answers she stumbles across a book written by Daniel Miller called ‘As if they were asleep’. Is that what Nora was trying to find?
As Jess begins to read the book she realises that the book is about her family, featuring a much younger version of her grandmother, Nora. The book leaves Jess with a lot of questions and not very many answers and the journalist in here sends her on a quest into the past to unravel the unsolved case into the tragedy that happened on Christmas eve at Halcyon.
You might like I did and see the plot twist coming, just not the logistics of it, but trust me, that is just the start of the twists. There are more to come bringing surprises along with them!
All in all, this was an excellent read and dare I say it, her best novel to date! It is a bit of an emotional roller coaster but one I didn’t want to end.
If you are a fan of her previous books you are in for a real treat with this one, and anyone who is new to her will soon find themselves ordering her back collection of books.
Homecoming by Kate Morton will be published on 13 April 2023 and is available to pre order now from your local bookshop or from the link below.

A massive thank you to the author Kate Morton, publishers Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for my digital arc of this book in exchange for an honest and independent review.

A multi layered family saga/ mystery with a dual timeline. I found it a very slow start which was a bit onerous but at about 60% the pace really picked up and I couldn't put it down. Thoroughly enjoyed the last third of the book but could well understand those readers who find it too slow and may not finish due to the long and intricate plot building in the beginning. I enjoyed both timelines equally and the ending neatly tied up all the last pieces. Some of the surprises were guessed but it did not detract from the enjoyment of the story. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the e- advance review copy.

A brilliantly crafted story with many plot twists and turns, you think you’ve got it all worked out and the final twist really knocks you. The story is told in different timelines from different characters and adds a nice depth to the plot. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but then I’ve not found a bad Kate Morton book yet, so not surprising really!

Thank you to the author, publishers and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review