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Journalist Jess Turner-Bridges was raised primarily by her grandmother in Australia. She’s been living in London for two decades, and now she’s without full-time work. Her longtime boyfriend has moved on with someone else. Jess is trying to find her way forward when the call comes that her grandmother has been taken to the hospital.
Nora Turner-Bridges is a force: a strong woman who grew up in a beautiful old home and then built her own successful business. Nora raised Polly and then Polly’s daughter, Jess. She’s someone around whom everything just revolves. But now she’s weak and frail, a small figure in a hospital bed. And she’s confused, saying some strange things that don’t make sense to Jess.
Alone in the house during non-visiting hours, Jess tries to dig up answers to some questions Nora’s ramblings bring up. And she is shocked to find that her family is tied to a tragedy that occurred in south Australia in 1959. She’d never heard about the deaths of these Turners decades before, let alone knew that they were related to her grandmother. Suddenly, truths she felt were unshakable fall apart, but at the same time, some of what she’s been told or heard over the years starts to make sense.
The case of the mother and children who died, likely because of an unknown poison, was the focus of a bestselling book in the U.S. But what police and the book posited as the likely cause was never completely substantiated. So Jess follows up on all the leads she can find to solve the mystery.
Homecoming alternates between the current day, when Jess is researching, and the past, at the time before and after the deaths. It’s compelling and powerful. I could barely put the book down as I pieced together clues given to Jess and to readers. I did figure out one important part of the story but didn’t guess some of the other pieces. As is usually true with Kate Morton’s books, I found myself swept up into the tale, caring deeply about these characters. The full picture was revealed, satisfying my need for everything to be tied together, but I also felt my heartstrings gently plucked. This is another lovely, poignant tale from Morton.
Rated: Mild. Profanity includes 6 uses of mild language, and about 10 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Violence includes deaths by poisoning.
