Homecoming

Totally engrossing and atmospheric. Am sad to say that the entire thing is devoid of a brown person, though.

Kate Morton’s Homecoming is a sweeping, multi-generational mystery that masterfully intertwines past and present. Set between Australia in 1959 and contemporary London, the novel follows journalist Jess Turner-Bridges as she returns home to Sydney after her grandmother, Nora, suffers a serious fall. As Jess digs into her family’s past, she stumbles upon the long-buried mystery of the Turner family tragedy—an event that left an entire family dead in mysterious circumstances on Christmas Eve decades earlier.

I loved this book as I have all of Morton’s works. I love generational mysteries because they reflect how history isn’t just facts and events—it’s memory, perception, and emotion, all tangled together. The past doesn’t exist in a neat, objective way; it is told and retold, reshaped by those who remember it, softened or distorted by time, guilt, or love. Every family has its own mythology, stories passed down that are more than truth or lies—they are something in between. Morton understands this deeply, and Homecoming explores how the stories we inherit shape us just as much as the truth we may never fully uncover.

What sets Morton apart is how well she writes people and their relationships. She captures the unspoken tensions, the quiet resentments, the fierce, complicated love that binds families together even as it pulls them apart. Her characters feel lived-in, as if they have histories beyond the pages of the novel. Jess’s relationship with her grandmother, Nora, is particularly poignant, highlighting the ways in which love is expressed—or withheld—across generations. The novel explores how misunderstandings, regrets, and long-buried secrets shape these relationships, making them feel achingly real.

Morton’s prose is lyrical, almost hypnotic, making the story feel dreamlike, as if the past is just beneath the surface, waiting to break through. Her settings are immersive, and the Australian landscape in Homecoming is as much a character as any person in the novel—lush, wild, beautiful, and haunted by history.

The story is like an archaeological dig site—each discovery leads to another, revealing and peeling back another hidden layer of the past that was long thought to be buried forever, drawing the reader deeper into its mysteries. With every chapter, another piece is carefully unearthed, slowly assembling a picture that is both more complex and more haunting than it first appeared. Homecoming leans more into slow-burn family drama than fast-paced thriller, but if you love stories that feel like long-buried secrets finally coming to light, this is a book to savor.

This book was not my friend, I found it droll and disjointed. Even though I originally gave it 3 stars, I dropped it back to two because that final twist at the end just wasn't enough to save it for me. I mean there was a good story in these pages, it just didn't need 5 narrators and 500 pages to tell it.

This is a LONG novel that transports readers to Australia for a murder mystery and mother-daughter tribulation saga. I enjoyed it a lot, but I agree with the reviewers here who commented that it dragged for the first 2/3 or 3/4. I think it could have used some better editing. It was entertaining, definitely plot driven – but with good attention to the character's motivations and struggles, and intriguing/surprising at the end (for me, anyway). There was a character who I thought I liked at the outset, and then I didn't by the end. And there was one who I thought I didn't, and then I did. Morton is an effective story teller, and I'd like to try another one of her novels sometime when I need an easy-ish escape.

Kate Morton's books take me to a cozy place reminiscent of curling up with my book as a child with no other care in the world, and I'm always sad for them to end. The language and sentence structure she chooses are soft but strong, whimsical but direct.

But I also find myself skimming a lot because the plot moves so well and I REALLY want to know what happens. It's a double-edged sword, I guess. But one that would make a re-read so worth it.. once you know the plot, you can settle in and soak in every ounce of such fine literary prowess.

This one definitely lived up to my love of Kate Morton and may actually be my favorite.

If you also loved The Secret Garden as a child, please go read all of Kate Morton's books.

When a family is discovered dead, there are many questions that are left lingering, and one family member who refuses to have anything to do with the house moving forward.

When her granddaughter starts asking questions, she is about to discover some long-held family secrets, and some of them are not as easy to take as others are...

This book was fantastic, and I enjoyed reading through it! It was hard to put down once I started. Heartbreaking in many ways, but also very touching in others.

Highly recommend this book!

Kate Morton is always a solid read. Unfortunately I guessed one of the twists in the mystery from almost the very beginning, but just wanted to read on to see how it ended. The writing is great, sense of place is great. Didn't particularly like any of the characters though and it was a little too long. I'll still read anything she puts out there though.

3.5- I was a bit let down by one of my most anticipated books this year. The story was rehashed in many different ways causing much redundancy and boredom. I guessed one thing very early on in the book but I'll admit I was a little surprised by how the family died.
I did enjoy the parts referring to the joys of reading.