An abandoned house with a history, a picture of a woman without a name, a famous mother whose daughter never knew her and a famous artist who never recovered after his muse disappeared. Seemingly unrelated and spanning more that 150 years, these disparate events and circumstances become the basis for an evocative and suspenseful story of love lost and eventually found.

Elodie Winslow is an archivist working in London, when she unexpectedly finds a leather satchel in a box of recently acquired material. The leather satchel contains a photograph of an an enigmatic woman posed in a garden and a sketchbook with a drawing of a gabled house on a river. The drawing resonates with Elodie even though she doesn’t think she has ever been there. The photograph was taken in the mid 1800’s but the woman in it is unknown. Suddenly, Elodie is eager to solve these mysteries, pursuing one lead after another while abandoning the wedding preparations she is supposed to be doing to her mother in law. As the mystery begins to unfold, Elodie realizes that the connections between the house, the woman and Elodie herself are much closer and more complicated than she could ever imagine.

Morton excels at writing these genre defying books! Not quite romance, not quite Gothic, not quite mystery, but always with a little “creepy” thrown in, they are enormously satisfying to read.  If you haven’t read one yet, you should do so at your next opportunity! Here are some links (The Lake House, The Secret Keeper) to some others you might enjoy as well!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to Lauren, Marian and Sharon

Book Study Worthy? Sure!

Read in ebook format.