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As Horas Distantes (2010)

by Kate Morton(Favorite Author)

3.85 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Porto Editora

review 1: Oh my but she did go on. That flowery sort of writing just does my head in. Just. Say. It! I didn't hate this book, despite all the waffle, but there were times I wondered if we could speed it up. The ending was fairly disappointing, though the true history of the mud man was so much more than I expected. I'm glad I only spent $1 getting this from a book fair. If you need to read this, borrow it from your library.
review 2: Milderhurst Castle in Kent has been in the Blythe family since its medieval construction, but really came to public notice just after WWI, when the then-owner Raymond Blythe published "The True History of the Mudman," a gothic horror tale set at the castle, which became a bestseller. It was the book that made young Edie Burchell, many decade... mores later, into a voracious reader, and she is stunned to learn that her mother was evacuated there during WWII. Her mother refuses to talk about it, but Edie can't forget, and when she accidentally stumbles on the castle--after getting lost driving--she manages to meet the elderly, unmarried Blythe sisters who still live there. There's dominant, acerbic Percy, who rules the roost with an iron hand, her twin Saffy, gentle and wistful, and the much younger Juniper, whom rumors say lost her sanity when her fiance betrayed her. Soon Edie is plunged into the world and history of the castle, determined to search out its mysteries.In this book, the author jumps back and forth chronologically, following the story from many different viewpoints and eras. She has a brilliant knack for tugging the story along with the tantalizing clues in just the right places, making the story unfold in unexpected and often tragic ways. She especially seems to like making her readers misjudge characters, then later come to understand their behavior. It was a really well-structured, well-written book with fascinating characters, though I did sometimes feel that I was drowning in melancholy--everyone's story was just so heartbreaking, so tragic, I often had to take a break and read something lighter. But it's a cracking good yarn, and well worth reading if you can deal with the tragedy. (Its title could well be "Old Sins Cast Long Shadows"--'nuff said.) less

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