Kate Morton’s second novel, The Forgotten Garden (copyright 2008), is a beautiful mystery “. . . of unknown parentage, family intrigue and generational secrets that keeps the reader turning pages into the wee hours of the night.”

A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913.  She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book—a beautiful volume of fairy tales.  She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own.  On her twenty-first birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, “Nell” sets out to trace her real identity.  Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family.  But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell’s death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled.  A spell-binding tale of mystery and self-discovery, The Forgotten Garden will take hold of your imagination and never let go. – From a Published Review

Kate Morton has become one of my favorite authors.  Be sure to watch for her fourth novel, The Secret Keeper, soon to be out later this year.  As I have found all of her novels to be great reads, I am expecting another bestseller.