Book Review: The House at Riverton

So for Book Club we read The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. The book was ok - I thought it dragged a bit but overall interesting. The funny thing about book club is some books I come in thinking good book and leave the meeting thinking not so great book. That's how I ended up feeling about The Forgotten Garden. There were some flaws that other members pointed out that I hadn't thought much about before.

Anyway - I read Kate Morton's other book The House at Riverton after the meeting.

First off - The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden are pretty much the same book - family mystery, bad mothers, flashbacks to tell the story, something shocking happening, etc. The endings on both are both pretty easy to figure out although The House at Riverton you are left guessing until the end exactly who does what to whom. This is disappointing to me. I know most writers have a style but it just reinforces my belief in not reading multiple books by the same author.

That being said The House at Riverton isn't a bad book. I actually liked it better than The Forgotten Garden. The story follows Grace, a 98 year old woman remembering her time at Riverton where she meets the daughters of the master of the house - Emmaline and Hannah. I can't tell too much about the story without giving the entire thing away. The story takes place both when Grace is in her late 90's about to die and when she's a servant at Riverton and later for Hannah. The mystery you find out pretty early on is that Robbie (a poet) presumably kills himself during a party Hannah and her husband are hosting at Riverton... but what really happened?? Cue dramatic music.

Another mystery (which is very similar to The Forgotten Garden) follows who is Grace's father. The reader can probably figure out after the first couple of chapters but it's not really the main point of the book and Grace figures it out much later (she seems a bit naive).

The problem is Hannah and Emmaline aren't likable. Grace is ok as a character but her younger self is naive and does some pretty dumb things because she's in "the service" to the family. The book would be better if you cared about the characters instead of wondering why they were doing something.

Apparently some of the Amazon reviewers are up in arms over the fact that Morton uses a cuss word in the book - I say BFD - get over it prudes. It's not like the characters are dropping curses left and right or there's endless sex scenes. It's only ever implied that characters are having sex (which is pretty hard to do since I'm fairly certain Emmaline was in some sort of early porn flick). People need to start worrying about more important things other than whether there are curse words in a book.

Overall, the book is good. Maybe three out of five stars. I wouldn't reread it. The story is entertaining and moves fairly quickly - although there are parts you want to just skim over (mainly Grace in present day). The mystery although a who-dun-it isn't like normal mysteries of today with intrigue and spies and lots of fighting scenes. At it's heart the book is a family drama with a bit of a mystery.