The Distant Hours

I just finished The Distant Hours, my second within a couple of weeks by Kate Morton. I just find that I have so much admiration for this writer. The plots, the writing, the suspense, keeping the whole thing tied together while skipping from character to character, location to location, time period to time period. She achieves all of this so smoothly, and we all know how hard it can be to make sub-plots and characters all hang together. The Distant Hours was yet another by this author that I couldn't put down. Toward the end, the whole story was coming together, some new aspects of it being uncovered on every page. The book gripped me on every page and would not let go, right up to the very end, where, just when you think it's all been revealed, there is another extra little...satisfying tidbit.After reading The House At Riverton (superlative story), I looked over the reviews of the other four from Kate Morton. There appeared to be a sort of pattern of a mystery from the past surfacing to be unraveled in the present. I thought I'd be disappointed if she got repetitious, but the first was so great that I wanted to read at least one more, and then if it looked as if she didn't have any new ideas, then I would stop reading her books. Well, I can now affirm, having read two of this writer's books, that they have not palled, and she is not a one-book-wonder who petered out. I loved The Distant Hours as much as I did The House At Riverton. My problem now is to choose which of her books I want to read next.

This book was assigned for my book club, and I would never otherwise have read it. Morton is an excellent writer - her prose is fluent and even elegant, her descriptions are perceptive and even memorable at times. Unfortunately, the book is 80% descriptions, far too many repetitive at best, at the expense of both balance and reasonable length of narrative - this was a 200 page book inflated to 560.It would be senseless to list the many specific shortcomings. The simple plot and sub-plot just aren't in any way worthy of this many pages of disorganization and repetition, even when written well.

I loved this book. It kept me spellbound and entranced your after hour, reminding me of the hours I spent as a child and teenager devouring Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, and Daphne duMaurier. You can read the synopsis of the book for yourself. This is a gothic novel in the most classic and traditional sense. There is the castle, a character in and of itself, the spinster sisters still living there into their old age, a la Miss Havisham, and a young woman who is destined to learn part, but not all, of their story. Kate Morton is a winsome writer who has the great ability to weave enchanting pictures and lives with her words. Enjoy the book!

I fell into this book and became engrossed. The characters are mesmerizing. This book held my interest from first word to last, so much so that as soon as I finished reading it I read it again. I've never done that before. The audio book was equally spellbinding. I like to listen as I'm falling asleep but it was difficult to do so. The narrator kept my interest and I didn't want to stop listening. Very good storytelling!!!

This is a story of love in many forms: love between father and child, mother and child, sisters, brothers; romantic love, love of home, and love of books. It seems the journey from beginning to end is long – but when I got to the final destination I realized that the tale just takes as long as it takes.During World War II Meredith Baker, a pre-adolescent girl, was evacuated from London to the countryside with her siblings, but ended up being placed separately with the three Blythe sisters, daughters of celebrated author Raymond Blythe, at their home called Middlehurst Castle. Meredith leaves a few years later and resumes her London life, eventually marrying and giving birth to daughter Edie Burchill who herself gets to visit the castle several times; the longest visit is to write the preface to a new release of Raymond Blythe’s 1918 book The True History of the Mudman.This summary sounds maybe a little dry; the novel is anything but. There are the voices in the walls, you see, and so much unrequited love. Some plot-reveals that the author may have meant to be surprises aren’t all that surprising, while other subtle twists will expose the way in which The True History of the Mudman is unavoidably and tragically tied to the fate of the three Sisters Blythe.The story is narrated mainly in the first person by Edie, who works in publishing in the 1990’s. The point of view shifts frequently though, with changes in perspective and in time, moving between the 90’s and the 1940’s, and even earler. Each of the Sisters Blythe tells part of her story (but in second person, as with everyone except Edie), and we also hear from Meredith Burchill nee Baker and, very briefly, the young Thomas Cavill, in what is arguably one of the most poignant depictions of love and hope in literature today.I listened to the audio version; Caroline Lee’s Australian accent, while easy on the ears, did cause me to repeatedly and mistakenly place Middlehurst somewhere Down Under instead of in Kent in the UK, but I got over it. I was left with a sense of a family saga come full circle. I was especially struck by the plight of the children of wartime London; it’s much more real in this story than in any Narnia installment.The Distant Hours is part gothic novel, part mystery, and part love story. When you get to the end, you’ll see that the story just – takes as long as it takes.

Honestly, this was my least favorite book that Morton has written. That aside, I’m so glad I read it. The story centers around the two elder Blythe sisters who care for the baby of the family, Juniper, 40 years after she suffers a mental collapse.In typical Kate Morton style, the story is a multilayered mystery that keeps the reader hooked until the last page.The MP3 disk format is great for listening in the car. One disk, now swapping.

This is a well written book, set in Britain, its storyline alternating between 1992 (present time) and 1940-41. Edith Burchill, a young journalist is intrigued by her mother's childhood past at castle Milderhurst, where she had lived temporarily as an evacuee during wartime Britain, in the company of the three aristocratic Blythe sisters. Fascinated by her mother's past, she takes an opportunity to discover the long buried, dark secrets and is soon in contact with the three old sisters who still live in the old, haunting castle. But not everything is as straightforward as it seems and in her quest, Edith slowly uncovers a decades old story of passion, madness, betrayal and death. The book is not without its faults, it does tend to go on for too long sometimes when you want it to move the storyline forward, especially in the earlier part of the book. However, it is still an absorbing tale of mystery that draws you deeper the more you read.

I have come to read Kate's books in what appears to be the wrong order, starting with the latest (which I loved) and then onto this one (which I also loved). There are plenty of explanations of the plot, the characters and the synopsis on here what you need to understand is how this book makes you feel. From getting to know a lonely little girl, to meeting a set of spinster sisters, to reliving the emotions of a war, and the secrecy from parents and families, I went from laughter to tears to thinking I knew what was coming to realising I absolutely did not. The ending was brilliant, my husband actually asked me several times if I was ok, due to the surprised, shocked and dismayed noises I was making whilst reading, he gave up when I started crying and went back to his PS4!!I would urge anyone to go into this book with an open mind and the ability to see the world through other peoples and just enjoy the ride.

I briefly saw the poor reviews before I started reading this and had obviously some reservations about whether I was going to like it or not. I have loved all Kate Morton's other books so I thought I would give it a go and see for myself.I should have had more confidence in one of my favourite writers. This is just beautifully written with the usual twists and turns and the reader never really knowing what has happened or indeed what is going to happen.In the present day we have the lovely Edie Burchill, the daughter of Meredith who, she learns, has a lot of secrets in the past and she aims to find out what these are. There are three elderly Blythe sisters, twins Percy (Persephone) and Saffy (Seraphina) and the youngest, Juniper, who live in the now dilapidated Milderhurst Castle. They are the daughters of the famous novelist, Raymond Blythe, who wrote the classic The True History of the Mud Man. Edie had received a copy of this book from her mother when she was a child and it had always been her favourite.Edie learns there are more than enough secrets in the Blythe family and sets out to uncover the truth, especially the inspiration for the story of the Mud Man. The events are also told from some of the characters perspectives along the way and I really enjoyed the World War 2 time period, especially when Meredith is evacuated.This is a lovely, warm and highly descriptive book and I loved it. I can always visualise Kate Morton's characters and especially in this case the old Castle (which I likened to the creepy yet stunning Manderley in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca).There is a sinister undertone to the whole Blythe family and I couldn't wait to find out what had happened and why the sisters were so intensely private and insular. I particularly liked Tom, Juniper and Edie and came to like Meredith very much.Yes I totally Immersed myself in this lovely book and really enjoyed it.I have only awarded 4 stars as I felt, at times, there was a lot of repetition which really didn't need to be there but that is only a minor irritation as I would have awarded 4.5 stars if I could.

The Distant Hours- Kate MortonFirstly,I was really pleased that for the most part , the annoying anachronisms and sloppy historical references that slipped into Morton's previous novels seem to have been picked up before publishing in `Distant Hours` (unless of course they were never there in the first place). I left this Kate Morton a while before reading it, having read all of her other novels, because the reader reviews suggested that it was not as good as her previous works. Let that be a salutary lesson - I thought it was possibly the best. Yes, it was a Gothic Novel; Yes , of necessity there was an element of cliché, Yes, it was a door stop (or would have been if I had bought the physical version instead of the Kindle one.) There is a certain formula for a Gothic Novel and Morton's version brought it into the realms of contemporary ...literature ... Is perhaps too much... Best Seller. Morton is good at menace. This had menace in buckets (of mud). The menace is the menace in a character's mind, transmitted to the reader; is that thing under the bed really an other worldly monster or just another dirty sock? Lovely stuff.The underlying themes deal with a kind of mother-daughter emotional isolation, jealousy, roles of women in mid-late 20th century society, repression of self ,The underlying themes deal with a kind of mother-daughter emotional isolation, jealousy, roles of women in mid-late 20th century society, repression of self, self reliance and reliance upon others, sacrifice, creativity, honesty, truth and lies and keeping up of appearances and loads more. This very much a Gothic Novel, which, when read with the sense of irony necessary to buy into the [what I think is a deliberate device] cock-eyed cliche and purple prose is actually a cracking good yarn. A good author will give you the clues to the `mystery' from page 1, and in TDH the story was there. How the reader took it in, and related it to the actual plot must be something down to individual reader psyches, an example of how the individual reader is a necessary part of the novel itself. Unless reading a who-dun-it genre, where clues are with-held until the end to prevent the reader solving the mystery, personally, I think the author of a character-theme driven novel fails if the reader does not grasp what is going on, where the plot is going. Surprises and twists in the conclusion are a bonus, not a requirement. Morton consistently does supply these by way of a finale, and TDH is no exception. Predictability of the denouement is, to this reader, less relevant than a satisfactory conclusion where no threads are left dangling and where any struggles the characters have faced are resolved in one way or another.Other readers have criticised the novel for its length and for `not getting on with it'. When I started reading, I must admit I did find the concept of the undelivered letter upon which the tome was going to pivot a bit weird- it just would not happen in that UK in that way. The dithering around before launching into the tale proper threatened to be frustrating enough to skip it until one remembers that Best Selling Authors do things for a reason. Good Writers (and Morton surely must be counted as one) write in a certain way for a reason and the perseverance paid off. I concede that some stuff could be considered padding and removed, but why? If a reader is in so much of a hurry, there is no law against skipping non-dynamic passages, but for the reader grabbing every nuance of the many interwoven themes and tropes they are grist to the psychological mill of the characters and the story (/stories!) . Some stories need to be tight. This one needs to put across an atmosphere of ennui in order for us to experience the darkness and drama more intensely.I would recommend that prospective readers not be put off by the negative aspects of some reviews, and I also think that the precis of the plot in no way does justice to this complex novel. IMHO The Distant Hours is different from Morton's other novels, perhaps in some ways more mature and introspective, and as such disappointing for those readers who prefer the more plot driven style of her other novels.

I have read several books by Kate Morton, but this ranks amongst the worst book I’ve ever read by any author!It started off promisingly, but soon lost its way - veering between the war years and the 1990s, totally at random. Several stories within the main one, but none fully explored or (for me) understood.This book didn’t appear to know what it was - almost as though the author had repeatedly gone away for months, and then recommenced! I was confused by her choice of name for the main storyteller. Edith would have been unusual for a young woman in the 1990s - and her mother’s name, Meredith, even more so during the war years (especially as her mother’s sister’s name was Rita).However, notwithstanding that, the storyline was utterly ridiculous - inconsistent, unbelievable and nonsensical. The characters could be equally labelled.All in all, a dreadful book - I only persevered in the hope it might eventually improve (it didn’t!) and because I was bored during this pandemic situation. Wish I hadn’t bothered - and I’d advise others not to!