When Jess rushes back to Australia to help her grandmother in hospital, she couldn’t realise the unexplained mystery she would find unfolding. As a journalist, she begins reading a true crime book and discovers a connection between her own family and an unsolved murder which happened sixty years ago.
The story is set in two time frames, 1959 when the tragedy happened, and 2018. Jess decides to use her journalistic skills to investigate what really happened all those years ago. The book unfolds at a steady pace, and it seems a while before the real story begins.
It is quite a long book which gives depth to the characters, and you begin to feel that you know them. All have their secrets which are gradually explored as the story progresses, and the twists and turns involved in this compelling story keep you turning the pages.
This compelling family drama is another great read for Kate Morton fans.

The Homecoming by Kate Morton
I have read and enjoyed many of this author’s novels and this one was very different due to its setting mainly in Australia. The story opens on Christmas Eve 1959 in South Australia with the terrible discovery by a local delivery man of a mother and her three children lying dead at a picnic. This was to become known as The Turner Family Mystery. We then move forward to London 2018 where Jess Turner Bridges is at a crossroads in her life. A long time relationship has ended, her job is not developing as she wants and she then receives the news that her Grandmother, the woman who raised her, is very ill and she needs to return home.
We then move backwards and forwards in time and see the events of the past from a variety of points of view as Jess uncovers what happened in 1959. She reveals secrets which have lain buried for years. Each of the characters was well drawn and each of the various stories was interesting and well developed.
I found myself gripped by the mystery and compelled to read on to discover how this story would be resolved. I must admit I did work out part of the secret but the last hundred pages or so answered a number of questions very effectively. I thought the use of a book within a book to answer explain what had happened was a very good technique. It is a wonderful exploration of what it means to be a mother and the sacrifices we make for those we love.
I will definitely recommend this novel to my various book groups. Many thanks to Kate Morton, the publishers and to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Homecoming is a dual timeline novel set at a country house in south Australia where in 1959 the scene of an awful tragedy took place. The characters stories and secrets from both periods, 1959 and 2018 are carefully unlocked and interweaved leading the reader to a satisfying conclusion to what happened on that fateful Christmas Eve. If you are looking for a gripping and at times sad story then read this.

Homecoming is dual timeline novel, 1959 & 2018, with Nora, her daughter Polly & grand daughter Jess at its heart.
Full of twists & turns, this book captured me from the start. Complex relationships were depicted so well, Kate Morton's descriptions were captivating, and for me, this book was unpredictable. I thoroughly enjoyed it,
Thank you Net Galley for this ARC.

Homecoming is set in southern Australia, where the action takes place around a mansion near a small town, Tumbilla, the scene of a horrific murder mystery sixty years before. In the present day, London-based journalist Jess, is called back home when her grandmother, Nora, lies ill in hospital. Jess is left to her own devices waiting for Nora to recover but when she finds a book written about the murders and realises there is a connection to her own family, she sets out to discover more. The final third of the book with its various revelations was excellent.

I found Homecoming a riveting read and would recommend it to all lovers of family sagas. Many thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan/Mantle for the opportunity to read and review this book.

On Christmas Eve 1959, a mother and her three children are found dead in the grounds of their property in the hills of southern Australia. The fourth child, a baby, has disappeared. In 2018, Jess rushes back to Sydney from London when her beloved grandmother is admitted to hospital after a fall. This is typical Kate Morton’s territory: a mystery stretching over two or even three timelines, a grand old house, complex family relationships and in this one the fantastic backdrop of the Australian outback. The plot is excellent and the mystery deepens until the end. This would have been a five if it had been a good hundred pages shorter, thus cutting on some occasional platitudes and repetitions. Also, my favourite character was Isabel - who dies on page 20 or so - I’d have wanted a lot more of her. Still, a solid 4 or even 4.5 and a great read. Courtesy of NetGalleys

I really enjoyed this story which was divided into the current day setting and 1959 when a family tragedy occurred. It kept me engaged to the end and I didn't see the twists coming. Great read.

I was gripped by this book from the first page to the last and read it very quickly. It follows Kate Morton’s now familiar style of narration alternating between events in the past and the present day. In 1959, in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, a terrible tragedy befalls an entire family, shocking the small local community. In 2018, Jess, living in London, receives a call telling her that her beloved grandmother Nora has had a fall and is in hospital. Jess flies to Sydney, to find that Nora’s condition is much worse than she expected and conversation is impossible. A few muttered words make her think something is preying on Nora’s mind and, using her journalistic experience and the internet, she starts investigating.

Nothing could have prepared Jess for the discovery that the 1959 tragedy involved members of her own family whom she’s never heard of. By the end of the book, she has to question everything she’s ever believed about Nora and about her own mother, Polly. This is because the whole saga is based on lies. Just as you think one mystery has been solved, another clue appears and with it, yet another mystery. Just about every character has lied, either in 1959 or over the years. It turns out that Polly knew some of the story but has been told she must never tell Jess. Polly is almost the missing person in this story as, after she was ten, Jess was brought up by Nora. Polly became my favourite character. We do finally get at the truth and I had trouble believing that Jess and Polly could cope with it. Luckily, they are tough. A brilliant read if you enjoy a good story and a long book. I’m now longing to discuss the book but as I read it thanks to NetGalley and it’s not out until 13th April, I can’t! I hope people will read it and share their thoughts.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this eARC.

I’ve read two of Kate Morton’s books in the past and enjoyed them, and I thought from the description of this book it looked like my kind of read.

I did enjoy this book and found it to be a good and engaging read, albeit a lengthy one. I thought it a little overly long once or twice though. I do like this author’s writing style and here I was drawn into the story and it’s characters right from the start. The story has a good plot line and is about family secrets, lies, mystery and intrigue. Jess returns home to see her ill grandmother and comes across a book in her grandmothers house about unsolved deaths of a family some 60 years before which piques her interest as a journalist. I love books like this with dual time lines and Kate Morton has a wonderful way of weaving a story so eloquently it moves from past to present times easily and effortlessly. The book was well written, engaging and quickly became a very absorbing read, I loved the author’s description of the characters, the town and surrounding countryside - they were so vivid I felt I could picture scenes in my mind when reading. I guessed some things correctly, not all though and I particularly liked how the story ended. If you like books with dual time lines, set in past and present times I think you’d enjoy this book and I’d recommend it.

4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

A cracking read. Really enjoy Kate Morton's books they have such a lot of depth to them .When Jess a journalist gets a call to return to Australia as her Grandmother Nora is in hospital after an accident but she has no idea of the story she is about to uncover. As she learns of the tragic events some sixty years earlier where a family where all found dead and a baby missing she tries to put together the facts and the connections to her own family. A story that grips you from the beginning and leaves you wanting to know more even though I guessed some of it early on it did not take away any enjoyment from the story. A must read for fans of this author and it does not disappoint

Kate Morton’s previous books I have loved and this is just as good but I found the beginning a bit long winded and guessed some of the mystery quite early in the book. It also felt a little disjointed and clunky but aside from all that I couldn’t put it down which to me is always a sign of a good book !#Homecoming #NetGalley

Homecoming

There was a familiar feel about the plot, or maybe plots, of this long novel. Maybe something seen in the news?

The narrative veers between 1959 when a village local in Tumbilla Australia makes a terrible discovery. One which has many ramifications. In 2018 the main protagonist, Jessica, is in London when she learns her grandmother, who has raised her, is dying. She must return home. Homecoming.

Jess is a journalist who has worked in London for almost twenty years. She is not as well drawn as I would have liked and I found I did not have much sympathy for her even though that is what the author was aiming for. She is trying to write a commissioned piece on returning home but is always struggling with it. She does not seem to be much of a journalist.

When she gets back to her grandmother Nora’s house she finds a book about the now infamous incident in 1959 and suddenly realises that this has connections to her own family. She sets out to discover what really happened and, by the end, makes a bigger discovery than she could ever have imagined. 

This is well written but overly long. I guessed part of the solution way before the end but one part was a surprise, mainly because of how a character had been drawn earlier in the novel. I enjoyed the read and if you like a mystery novel with lots of red herrings you will too.

I read a copy provided by NetGalley and the publishers but my views are my own.

This was such a good book. I love historical fiction, especially when it is about eras/ situations that I previously knew nothing about and this was definitely one of those books. It was so well researched and so compelling in its narrative that not only did I love reading it but I felt that I learned too. A really enjoyable read and perfect for any fans of historical fiction.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words some text written has been typed in red and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

The Christmas Eve of 1959 is a hot summer’s day in South Australia. Isabel Turner takes her four children out into the grounds of their Adelaide Hills home for a picnic – and this is where they are found later that day by a man delivering groceries. At first he thinks they are asleep in the sun but, sensing an unnatural stillness, he comes closer and makes the shocking discovery that the Turners are all dead. The local police are convinced that Isabel, who is believed to have been depressed, must have poisoned herself and the children, but the case is never fully solved and becomes the subject of a true crime book, As If They Were Asleep, written by American journalist Daniel Miller.

Almost sixty years later, in 2018, Jess Turner-Bridges is living in London when she receives a call from a hospital in Sydney informing her that her beloved grandmother, Nora, has had a fall and is in a serious condition. Jess hasn’t been back to Australia for years, but her grandmother is the person who raised her when her own mother was unable to, so she leaves for Sydney immediately to be by Nora’s side. Alone in Nora’s house, Jess discovers Daniel Miller’s book in her grandmother’s bedroom and is drawn into the story of the Turner Family Tragedy. Having been unaware until now of her own connection with this tragic incident, Jess is shocked by what she reads, but now that Nora is dying it seems that her chance to find out the truth could be slipping away.

Homecoming, like the other books I’ve read by Australian author Kate Morton, is deeply layered, containing stories within stories, multiple viewpoints and alternating timelines. It’s a long novel and I felt there were things that could probably have been left out without affecting the story too much – Jess’s life in London at the beginning and the backgrounds of some of the minor characters, for example – but otherwise I was completely gripped and read it much more quickly than I would usually read such a long book.

I loved the descriptions of rural Australia and the portrayal of 1950s Tambilla, the small town where the story takes place. As the title suggests, the theme of ‘homecoming’ plays an important part in the story: what it’s like to come home after a long absence and the idea of ‘home’ being not just the opposite of ‘away’ but also of ‘loneliness’. And for forty-year-old Jess, despite living in London for most of her adult life, Australia is still the place where she feels most at home.

The mystery at the heart of the novel – the deaths of Isabel Turner and her children – is not resolved until the end of the book and although the clues were all there, I didn’t pick up on them so didn’t work out what happened. However, there’s another family secret which has big implications for Jess and I found that one very easy to guess, which took away some of the fun. Maybe I’ve just read too many books like this one, but I thought it was very obvious! I did very much enjoy reading Daniel Miller’s As If They Were Asleep (not a real book, of course) which is reproduced in full, a few chapters here and there. It sheds some light on both mysteries, as well as allowing us to see the Turners and their friends and neighbours from a different perspective.

I do wonder whether this book might have worked just as well as a straightforward crime novel set in the 1950s, without the additional family secrets and the Jess and Nora storylines, but I know that’s not what Kate Morton does and probably not what her readers would expect from her! Anyway, apart from guessing the twist too soon, I did love this book and still have one or two of her earlier ones to look forward to.

This is a big novel. That juggles multiple time lines. If you like Kate Morton’s previous books. You’ll like this one.

FROM THE COVER📖

Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959.

At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek in the grounds of a grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tumbilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.

Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital.

At a loose end in Nora's house, Jess does some digging into her past. In Nora's bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime – a crime that has never been truly solved. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find . . .


REVIEW⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have never read anything by this author I was inclined to request the ARC when I spied the cover it drew my attention, upon reading the synopsis I was intrigued, so thank to NetGalley for the ARC.

First off I really liked the author’s attention to detail her writing is captivating, I felt transported to the locations, I felt the heat of the Australian sun burning down on me and I could taste the sweet iced tea. She writes beautifully and I felt she captured the nuances that a mother and daughter relationships have very well.

While I did enjoyed this I did feel that this the book was overlong and very repetitive. A hundred or so pages shorter would have still had a good story, the story mainly set in Australia and centres around the mystery of Turner family deaths in 1959. The story is good and kept my interest but I did guess the secret in the most part halfway though, there were however a few twists and turns. That being said the whole story leads up to the secret which having guessed just prolonged the book even more. A lot of of the prolonging was not needed and became a bit annoying I did skip a few paragraphs towards the end just to get it finished. I love a good mystery and I love a novel that spans periods of time this book had both elements but there was something lacking for me, it was something I think my gran would have really loved it, which doesn’t make it a bad book at all just not for me.

On a plus it glides seamlessly between then and now. We hear from Jess in the now, Percy in the then mostly with some of Polly’s POV in the now and what I found both really good and bad was the addition of the chapters from the true crime book based in the mystery this acted as a way of telling what happened for the reader and also as evidence/research for Jess as she tried to uncover her grandmothers secret this in part worked brilliantly and was really well written it added an extra dimension to the story and enriched it, here the author really captured the time and setting, however while this was a great way to break up the chapters and add something to the story, if not tell it this were there was a lot of faff and unnecessary prolonged parts that did not add to the story ,I think smaller snippets of the true crime book would have worked better and added more suspense , I can see what the authors was trying to do here but it just made the book to long for me.

Overall I found this book okay there was something that I could not put my finger on what made it only three stars instead four as there everything was there for it to be four. Maybe I am not the wrong target market and I like my crime a bit more sinister , all though this was sinister it was not at the same time.

All that being said I would try some of the authors other books.

I have read all of the books by Kate Morton and have enjoyed them all with The Forgotten Garden one of my all time favourites. I was lucky enough to get an early copy of her new book Homecoming via Netgalley so had to read it straight away.

This story is very much like her previous books as in there are different timelines and family secrets. This story follows Jess who goes back to Australia because her grandmother Nora has had a fall and is not very well because of it. The story goes on from there with Jess finding out what has happened in the family.

I love books by Kate Morton but I found this one not the best. The storyline is great, I knew what I was going to get. However I did feel that this the book was overlong and very repetitive. A hundred or so pages shorter would have still had a good story.

I did guess the secret halfway through which didn't help. The whole story leads up to the secret which having guessed just prolonged the book even more.

I liked this book but it isn't a favourite. The story was interesting and did hold my attention for a good while. I will read more by Kate Morton and do appreciate that this is what she does so do know what to expect. Just a little disappointed as I didn't enjoy this book as much as I would have liked.

Thank you to the publisher via Netgalley for the book to review.

I did enjoy this book but there were a lot if narratives going on together.
It is set in Australia and centres around a mysterious family death in 1959.
It glides seamlessly between then and now and has plenty if twists and turns.
Perfect for fans of Rachel hore judith lennox and of course Kate Mortons previous novels.

Engaging well-written novel which uncovers what really happened during a family tragedy over 60 years earlier.
Jess, a London-based journalist, returns to Sydney when her beloved grandmother is taken ill, and this is the beginning of revealing mysteries of all their pasts. Not everything this is/was what it seemed; and although I deduced some of the twists this did not spoil my enjoyment.

Would recommend to anyone who enjoys family sagas, historical novels.

With thanks to NetGalley and Mantle for an ARC.

Jess returns to her native Australia when her, grandmother Nora, with whom she lived for most of her childhood, is seriously ill. Nora doesn't recover and Jess finds many unanswered questions about her grandmother's life. There was a family tragedy at the time of her mother's birth in 1959, a missing baby, and a family property that Jess is only now hearing about. At the heart of the novel is the theme of motherhood and its potential for control and corrosive influence as well as loving support:. Together with secrets and lies this creates a thoroughly absorbing narrative.