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Mele’s Musings: The forever ongoing debate of Dunkin’ Donuts vs. Starbucks

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No. 9 Notre Dame survives No. 21 Temple, 24-20, with late TD

<p>I&#8217;ve been a fan of author Kate Morton for a few years now, ever since I picked up her novel &#8220;The Forgotten Garden&#8221; in 2010 and spent much of that fall reading every other book Morton had published. Morton is an Australian writer who crafts these beautifully sweeping multigenerational sagas. The characters are compelling, there is always a mystery of some sort that connect generations and always a touch of the Gothic.</p><p>&#8220;The Lake House,&#8221; Morton&#8217;s newest novel, is no different. The story follows Alice Edevane, dreamy, intelligent and naive, the daughter of a wealthy family who spends their summers in the lake house of her mother&#8217;s ancestral estate. When she is 16 (in 1933), tragedy strikes and her baby brother, Theo, disappears, never to be found again.</p><p>In 2003, Alice is a famous crime writer whose detective, Diggory Brent, has captured the imagination of readers for decades. Pragmatic and cautious about sharing her past, Alice is shaken when she receives a letter from a young detective who stumbled upon the long ago mystery of her missing brother.</p><p>Sadie Sparrow, the detective, is on leave from the force in Cornwall when she finds the ruins of the old Lake House and begins to explore its history. Reeling from tragedies in her own life, Sadie is looking for something to grab her attention and keep her mind off why she is on leave. Her letter to Alice sets off dramatic events that bring past and present crashing together.</p><p>Told from multiple perspectives, &#8220;The Lake House&#8221; travels back and forth in time, across generations to connect the mystery of Theo&#8217;s disappearance. Along the way, Morton introduces her readers to a host of fascinating characters.</p><p>There&#8217;s Eleanor, Alice&#8217;s mother, who Alice sees as grim and controlling, but who is hiding secrets of her own. There&#8217;s Constance, Eleanor&#8217;s mother, who sees more than she is meant to. And then there&#8217;s Peter, Alice&#8217;s assistant in 2003, who stumbles on inconsistencies in Alice&#8217;s past and is intrigued by her background.</p><p>Alice&#8217;s father, Anthony, fought in WWI, which changed his life forever, and Alice was a young woman in London during WWII. The wars, along with other historical events, like the sinking of the Titanic, impact each of the characters&#8217; lives in different ways.</p><p>And yet, at the heart of the novel lies the mystery: what happened to baby Theo? Was he kidnapped? Killed? Still alive somewhere decades later?</p><p>Judging from previous Morton books, I knew that the various storylines would coalesce beautifully in an emotional and meaningful ending. Morton has a gift for weaving fairy tale and Gothic elements into a suspenseful page turner. She also is able to take all of the different strands of her story and weave them together perfectly, no matter how complicated they may seem.</p><p>I wholeheartedly recommend &#8220;The Lake House,&#8221; as well as all of Morton&#8217;s previous novels. They are the perfect books for chilly fall nights in front of a fire.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">&#8220;The Lake House&#8221; written by Kate Morton weaves past and present into one novel. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_lakehouse.jpg</photo1><caption1>&#8220;The Lake House&#8221; written by Kate Morton weaves past and present into one novel. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dorothy Sasso</p><p>On the Books</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p>&#8220;The Lake House&#8221;</p><p>Author: Kate Morton</p><p>Page Count: 512</p><p>Publisher: Atria Books</p><p>Rating: &#9830;&#9830;&#9830;&#9830;&#9830;</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Dorothy Sasso is a former Soap Opera Digest writer and a private school teacher. She is busy reading books and raising her daughter.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

“The Lake House” blends fairy tale and Gothic storytelling into one beautifully written novel