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Oct 17, 2016s390325 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This is a great novel and mystery, focusing on mother- daughter and sister- sister relationships. I really enjoyed it, didn't want to stop reading it! I think the part that I liked the best was that the narrator becomes much closer with her mother as she learns the secrets of Milderhurst Castle. The Blythe family seemed a bit unreal to me, although they did make for an interesting plot. I was confused at the very end when Percy's side of the story is told... her perspective is that she has protected her sisters for their whole lives- that she has torn up job offers and letters to prevent her twin from leaving the castle because her twin couldn't handle the outside world, and that her younger sister also needs protecting from the world. This could be true, but since it is the first time this perspective (about Saffy) has been introduced, it leads me to wonder if this is just Percy's way of justifying her life. The backstory of the Mud Man was interesting, and terrifying. I was a bit annoyed at the description of Juniper's decent into madness "the lights went out". There has to be a more precise description of her mental illness than that- people don't just exactly blow their circuits. I know this is a novel, but I feel like the sisters should have tried to get some outside help. My final criticism is that this is the 3rd Kate Morton novel I have read, and I wish that the perpetrator in all her novels were acting under the influence of a mental illness. At least this time it wasn't "shell shock" like in the other two novels I've read. I enjoyed this a lot, but I feel like her novels are a bit formulaic and it will be a little while before I read another.