The Lake House by Kate Morton

 I enjoyed this well constructed mystery.  It's the type of story that grabs you early on and then keeps you reading by carefully revealing clues and details of the characters right into the conclusion.

DC Sadie Sparrow has been ordered on vacation due to a lapse of judgement during a recent case.  Not one to sit and stew, she is out and about in Cornwall when she stumbles upon a cold case, a seventy year cold case.  This peaks her interest and she dives in, finding similarities to her recent investigation.

This brings her in contact with Alice Edevane, sister to a child that was reported missing seventy years earlier.  Alice is touted as a local author and celebrity even though she has never returned to the site of the abduction.

Once started, I didn't want to put this book down, and kept sneaking in a chapter, or two or three, every chance I could.  Author Kate Morton made me feel as though I knew the Edevane family. I felt their anguish as they lived through those horrible events.  Her descriptions of the estate and family home left me feeling that it was a magical or mystical place where almost anything could happen.

I like the character of Sadie and her dogged determination to follow instincts and clues regardless of the formal opposition she might face.  Both she and Alice lead interesting and complicated lives that would undoubtedly improve if they would share the burden of their secrets. Neither is the sort that easily confides in others.

Once the story concluded, I was left with pleasant memories as though I had spent all that times with friends and not imagined characters. 

Cover image courtesy of Atria Books.