‘Homecoming’ by Kate Morton

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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.
London, December 2018. 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 she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this notorious event–a murder mystery that has never been satisfactorily resolved.

This is a multi-layered novel, with a clever style retelling multiple versions of the same story from different points of view. Each time a bit more is revealed and possible suspects start to pile up. Slowly I began to realise what must have happened, and yet the ending still held a number of surprises.

This is a brilliantly woven tale of home and belonging with a compelling mystery at the very centre of it. Kate Morton fans will be enthralled by this her latest book. Morton is growing on me, but I find her writing to be a bit slow and overwritten. When I got halfway, the pace did pick up and I have to say that the secrets revealed were satisfying and I am glad I persevered. In the end it was worth it. But I won’t be recommending it anyone who has no patience for a long descriptive page-turner (oxymoron intended). 🙂

I just re-read my post on the only other Morton novel I have read, The Secret Keeper, which I read a long time ago. I was curious about how I responded to that one then, and it was interesting to realise that my reaction to both novels was very similar, and the novels themselves were quite a bit the same as well.

Morton clearly loves the Adelaide Hills and I’ll forgive her for her lengthy descriptions which reveal her own passion for this beautiful place. I’ve been to Australia. She did make me connect with my memories of Sydney, Brisbane, and the Gold Coast. But she also made me want to visit the Adelaide Hills if I ever return.

For Morton this book was uniquely personal. When the pandemic started, she quickly moved back to Australia to wait out the lockdown. During her time there (which of course was much longer than anyone ever imagined) she wrote this book. To learn more about the writing of this novel: click here for a New York Times article.