The Distant Hours by Kate Morton
Why I Recommend This Book…
Similar to the mail carriers found in my short story for February, this book begins with a mail carrier. And a lost letter. A letter of which had been lost for quite some time. Half a century to be certain. And it opens with the following phrase:
“If Arthur Tyrell had been a little more responsible, if he hadn’t had one too many rum toddies that Christmas Eve in 1941 and gone home and fallen into a drunken slumber instead of finishing his mail delivery, if the bag hadn’t then been tucked in his attic and hidden until his death some fifty years later…the whole thing might have turned out differently.”
Allow me to share with you The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. I absolutely adore this author.
The novel is structured with a dual timeline, similar to my own novel-in-progress, moving back and forth between modern-day London and historical London in the 1940s.
The novel’s protagonist, Edith Burchill, receives a long-lost letter of which leads her to Milderhurst Castle and here she finds the aging Blythe sisters: Juniper, the youngest, who has not been the same since her fiancé abandoned her, and Juniper’s older sisters, twins Percy and Saffy.
While at Milderhurst, Edith learns of her mother’s hidden past, and many other secrets, all concealed within the castle’s walls, and discovers more than she had bargained for.
The novel’s themes are centered around a love of books, the relationships between mothers and daughters, as well as those between sisters.
This is a fantastic read to curl up with beside a warm fire on these dark winter nights. A good, slow read, and one you’ll really want to wallow in.
And if you’re anything like me, and love the work of the Bronte sisters, as well as a dark and gothic tale, you’ll enjoy this one.
