Review of HOMECOMING by Kate Morton (New Release)

 3.5 Stars

This mystery/family drama has a dual timeline:  1959 and 2018.

In 1959, in a small town in South Australia, a man discovers Isabel Turner and three of her children dead.  The youngest, an infant, is missing.  In 2018, Jess Turner-Bridges leaves her home in London and returns to Sydney when she learns that her grandmother Nora, the woman who raised her since she was 10, is seriously ill in hospital.  In her grandmother’s home, Jess finds a book which reveals that her family is connected to the 1959 tragedy, some details of which have not been satisfactorily resolved.  Thus begins a journey that uncovers several family lies and secrets.

The pace is problematic.  At 560 pages, the book is fairly lengthy and begins very slowly.  The middle is bogged down with the inclusion of too many perspectives, including a book within a book, which result in unnecessary repetition.  Irrelevant backstories of minor characters are included.  Only in the latter part does the pace pick up.  Then the number of revelations piles up to the point of feeling excessive. 

Part of the mystery is predictable; I know many readers will guess a key element very early on.  There are, however, some plot twists.  The ending does explain behaviours and reactions which struck me as unusual or illogical when they were first mentioned.  It’s just unfortunate that the book takes so long to get to explaining so much of what happened. 

I did not like the over-reliance on serendipity, the occurrence of events by chance in a beneficial way.  The death of a solicitor, for instance, is certainly convenient.  It’s amazing how many things are found at the perfect time.  A gift lost in 1959 is found 30 years later “’just lying there’”?   Jess receives a parcel at just the right time and discovers hidden pages and a hidden letter just when their information is most needed.  I have difficulty believing that removing a few pages from a journal would eliminate all references to a life-altering relationship.  Yet the discovery of a burial 20 years later doesn’t raise questions in the person who deliberately did not bury what is discovered? 

The book certainly emphasizes the impact of secrets and lies.  At the end the reader is influenced to reflect on how lives and relationships would have been very different if secrets had not been kept and lies not told.  “The chief storyteller” in the family is responsible for so much:  destroying relationships and damaging people.  Jess’s conclusion that “it was impossible to feel angry” with this person responsible for “acidic family secrets” is simplistic.

Characters are well-developed.  What is interesting is that the reader’s opinion of several characters changes in the course of novel.  Characters often prove to be better or worse than first impressions suggest.  The one character whom I did not like is Jess.  For someone who is almost 40, she seems immature, willing to forgive one person but reluctant to forgive another.  Her behaviour while Nora is in the hospital (showing up late for visits) doesn’t jive with her supposed love for her grandmother.

As an avid reader, I loved the references to how a love of reading impacts the lives of several characters.  Relationships are formed and lives are changed because of a love of books and reading.  I can certainly identify with "the lightness of spirit and free-floating sense of possibility” felt in new books awaiting my attention. 

There is a good story here, but it could use some judicious revising and editing. 

Note:  I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.