TBR Challenge: Kate Morton - The Distant Hours

Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives one Sunday afternoon with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother’s emotional distance masks an old secret.
Evacuated from London as a 12-year-old girl, Edie’s mother is chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe and taken to live at Milderhurst Castle with the Blythe family: Juniper, her twin sisters, and their father, Raymond.
Fifty years later, as Edie chases the answers to her mother’s riddle. She, too, is drawn to Milderhurst Castle and the eccentric sisters Blythe. Old ladies now, the three still live together, the twins nursing Juniper, whose abandonment by her fiancé in 1941 plunged her into madness.
Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst Castle, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. For the truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time for someone to find it....

Comment: For October, the TBR Challenge post has the theme "Spooky (Gothic)" but since I rarely read things I'd consider spooky - certainly not intentionally - I've decided to stick to the Gothic part of the suggestion. 

Looking through my TBR, I've failed to find something that would be immediately seen as such so I picked an author I wanted to try for some time but never had the impulse to do so. I've chosen a book by Kate Morton, then, at the library, for her work often has the label Gothic associated with her historical novels.

In this story we meet heroine Edie, an editor at a small publisher, who has a pretty stagnant life in 1992. She also doesn't have a very warm relationship with her mother but one day a letter arrives and her mother has a reaction she never imagined she would see such a stoic person have. She discovers the letter is related to her mother's youth experience as an evacuee during the war and she decides to investigate the castle where she stayed. It just happens it's also the home of famous author Raymond Blythe, and his three unmarried elderly daughters still live there. Following her curiosity, Edie visits the castle and she leaves with more questions than when she arrives, propelling to keep the contact. With time, what she discovers not only gives her a new perspective about her mother, but also about the castle's current inhabitants...

I had seen several friends of mine on GR giving positive grades to this author's work. I must also say the covers of her books, well, most of them, are gorgeous and that does appeal to the eye. Still, somehow I was never really motivated to try myself but this time I felt it was a good opportunity for I know most of the author's novels are historical with Gothic-like vibes, at least according to the labels in sites such as GR and retailers.

I had no big expectations before starting but once I did and the page turning was ongoing, I couldn't help thinking the writing was quite wordy, lost and lots of words and descriptions and paragraphs setting up the mood, details which I kept thinking weren't really that necessary... I kept going but there was a time I thought the book was a bit boring. This notion never left me and if there is one word I would use to describe the story is precisely that, boring.

The story is told from Edie's POV, which is fine for the most part, and we get to find out things at the same time she does. There are also several chapters in the past, between late 30s until early 40s, seen through the eyes of secondary characters, and this lets us know which events happened to lead to the situation Edie is learning about in 1992. The plot is dual timed but focused on what happened in the castle at the time Edie's mother was there as young girl, as well as what happened to other people who had lived there before. There is a lot of content about the Blythe sisters, still alive in her eighties in 1992 but who had very different takes on life in 1940.

I think the author clearly researched a lot about the area and the evacuation premise one not often seen in these types of historicals. Well, the ones I've read don't usually mention this. I liked how she devised the mystery Edie is investigating and the atmosphere surrounding the 30s and 40s is definitely moody, although Gothic is perhaps a description I would not think of right away. I also think there's a certain push to make things seem odd and lugubrious and to me this was not done in a convincing way. 

It's understood something terrible happened to the Blythe sisters, namely the youngest, whose fiancé never arrived for a meeting they had planned and she has mourned the loss since then. The other sisters have taken care of her, for her health deteriorated and her mind is not sane anymore, but all these elements are given to the reader by Edie's eyes, and then there are chapters in between main events where we see the sisters as young women and their interactions with others. I have to say I wasn't particularly interested in these segments, because the characters are, for the most part, too bland. I failed to find sympathy towards them besides the obvious.

When things get closer to the end the plot becomes a bit more interesting, as the secrets the Blythe family has start becoming known, but Edie isn't exactly the most fascinating of heroines and the writing kept on being wordy. I was reading but not really feeling an emotional connection, even when more heartfelt situations were being described. The solution/explanation for the big mysteries were also a little too convenient and I've struggled to see them in my head. I think the author could have done a better job bringing all the loose threads together.

When the story ends, there's also a very melodramatic scene we are told about which I think was over the top and slightly ridiculous. Thinking of this and the way some situations happen reminded me there were better ways for the plot to be secretive for longer or for it to be more engaging. This means the writing wasn't a great one for me and the execution should have been done bettor by the author. Nevertheless, let it be said, I've read a translation and having studied this in the university I could kind of see where some options might have come from... perhaps reading another book by the author in English might suite me better. I'll definitely try but probably not that soon.

Grade: 6/10