Kate Morton's follow-up (The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton)

Member Name: cerys82

Product:	The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton
Date:	04/09/09 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fantastically plotted, engaging story

Disadvantages: none that I can think of

The Forgotten Garden is Morton's second book, a follow-up to The House At Riverton which was highly successful as winner of Richard and Judy's summer read a couple of years ago. The House At Riverton is also one of my favourite books of all time.

The Forgotten Garden is set at four different times with four different perspectives.

When Cassandra's grandmother Nell dies she is drawn into a mystery about Nell's parentage as well as how she came to be abandoned at an Australian port as a small child. Cassandra, a woman with her own tragic past ends up travelling to Cornwall in order to unravel the mystery which involves high society, family scandal, poverty and children's literature.

To my mind, Morton is a master storyteller. The book is well thought-out and paced and never confusing despite the constant time shifting. The pieces of the story come together wonderfully and the overall novel is superbly crafted.

The story is punctuated with the occasional chapter which takes the form of a children's fairytale/fable apparently written by one of the protagonists. This is a nice idea and not as gimmicky as it sounds because the stories often have relevance to the main plot.

The different strands of the overall story come together expertly making the different revelations, twists and turns feasible.

The main characters are really well stretched considering that the novel is plot driven.

Needless to say I absolutely loved this book and would highly recommend it. The only reason that it has 4 stars rather than 5 is that I didn't think it was quite as exceptional as The House At Riverton, otherwise I would still highly recommend it and can't wait to see what Morton comes up with next.

Summary: Another excellent book from an incredibly talented author