TL;DR: A gothic mystery that answers all your questions at the end, The Distant Hours by Kate Morton is rich with tragedy, secrets, and the entanglement of family bonds.
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐3/4
A long-lost letter from 1941 sets Edith Burchill on a path to discover her mother’s past and the entangled secrets of the Blythe family. Along the way, she finds out more about who she is and where she wants to go than she expects.
I read this book on a recommendation for books like Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale, and boy, were they right! It has multiple POVs, deep characters, twisty motivations, and dark secrets that you’ll only know the answer to by the end of the book. I loved that the castle the Blythe family lives in is as rich a character as the protagonists (of which there are many). The prose, the history, and the separate POVs bring together a tale of family and secrets that don’t disappoint. For these reasons and more, I’ve given it 4.75 stars.
The Plot
Edith Burchill has never understood her mother, Meredith. They appear to be nothing alike and she struggles to share anything more than the basic essentials of her life with her mom. Until one day, her mother receives a letter lost in the post from 1941 and everything changes.
The letter leads Edith to Milderhurst Castle and the Blythe sisters who live there within its decaying walls. Edith wants to know more about the past her mother discusses, the year she spent at Milderhurst during the war. What she gets is something infinitely darker — the reason for Juniper Blythe’s descent into madness, the actual story of what happened to the Blythe family, and what it is her mother has kept secret all these years.
What I liked & liked less
The best part about this book is the characters. Morton spends time with each of them, some more than others, and you get to know them and their secrets by the end of the book. There isn’t one character that didn’t have something to hide, deeper motivations driving their actions, and a part to play in the unravelling of the Blythe family.
Out of all of them, Edith Burchill is the least interesting. She has a good character arc, and she changes from the start of the book to the end, but she’s more in the catalyst’s role to the secrets unfolded in the book. That being said, her motivations are clear, her character grows, and she sees a different side to her mother and father by the end of the book.
Percy Blythe is my favorite character, not because she’s likeable, but because of all that she endures and manages throughout her life. She is the lynchpin of the Blythe family, the keeper of its secrets. But she also has a secret of her own, which adds another dimension to her.
Saffy Blythe is warm and silly, and a dreamer. Her secret isn’t revealed by her, but by her twin, Percy, because she refuses to believe it. I think that’s why I felt the most empathy for her. Her inability to understand her limitations, but also why she’ll never achieve any of her dreams, makes her a deeply sympathetic character.
Juniper Blythe is the most unknowable of the three sisters. Yes, we see the world from her perspective later in the book, but the quality and viewpoint on how she interacts with the world remains much like her — dreamy and vague.
Milderhurst Castle is as much a character in the book as the people living in it and visiting it. It is the factual holder of all that has passed within its walls and its decay mirrors the decay of the Blythe sisters’ lives. I loved the descriptions of it as much as, if not more than, some of the interactions between the people in it.
The twist to the story is really well done. No one knows what it is until the very end, when Percy reveals her actions and her side of that particular mystery. Edith thinks she knows, but it’s not confirmed until then. I can’t say more without spoilers (and fear I may have said too much), but the twist is good, really good.
If I had to say what I didn’t like, it’s that the end chapter is about Edith, but is in third person, when the rest of the book we hear her in first person. It’s possible the author wanted us to feel that distance and that is why she changed the POV from first to third, but I found it a bit jarring. I would’ve liked it to end with Edith’s thoughts and narrative in the way that it started, but that is not to be.
To Sum Up (Too Late!)
If you like a story about family tragedy, secrets, and the bonds that make or break a family, you’ll love this book. If you like a dark and twisty setting, and flawed characters, you’ll like this book as well. I really enjoyed it and plan on reading more of Kate Morton in the future. It is a big book, but it has to be to fit in everybody’s story. Because I went to bed thinking of it and then incorporated it into my dreams, I give it 4.75 stars.
About the Author
KATE MORTON grew up in the mountains of south-east Queensland and now lives with her family in London and Australia. She has degrees in dramatic art and English literature, and harboured dreams of joining the Royal Shakespeare Company until she realised that it was words she loved more than performing. Kate still feels a pang of longing each time she goes to the theatre and the house lights dim.
“I fell deeply in love with books as a child and believe that reading is freedom; that to read is to live a thousand lives in one; that fiction is a magical conversation between two people – you and me – in which our minds meet across time and space. I love books that conjure a world around me, bringing their characters and settings to life, so that the real world disappears and all that matters, from beginning to end, is turning one more page.”
Kate Morton’s six novels – The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours, The Secret Keeper, The Lake House, and The Clockmaker’s Daughter – have all been New York Times bestsellers, Sunday Times bestsellers and international number 1 bestsellers; they are published in 34 languages, across 42 countries.
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This fills in the Mental Health square on my Fantasy Bingo 2022 card.