At sixteen in rural England at the start of the 1960s, Laurel Nicolson hides in their tree house to avoid the family outing in celebration of her baby brother’s second birthday.  From there she witnesses a horrible act that involves her mother.  Innocently, she attests to the fact that her mother’s response was to protect her two-year-old child and herself. Years later in 2011, Laurel, an acclaimed actress now in her sixties, visits her ninety-year-old mother in the hospital in Suffolk, England, where Laurel and […]

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.”

THE DISTANT HOURS by Kate Morton is historical fiction in true gothic style, replete with all of the elements of the genre: setting, plot, characters. The primary setting is Milderhurst Castle in Milderhurst Village, not far from London in England, between 1939 and 1992; a ruined castle complete with a moat that has been filled in, whispering walls, stormy nights; principal characters who are isolated from the rest of the outside world.