The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

The only thing wrong with Kate Morton’s books is that inevitably there comes a final chapter, and then a final page. And for me that final page is usually read around 3am in the morning. Hers are not books to be dipped into when you have a spare five minutes; they are stories to be enjoyed at your leisure with your cat on your lap and a cup of tea by your side. The Distant Hours was no different.

Milderhurst Castle is the focal point of the novel and it’s been in the Blythe family for generations. Twins Percy and Saffy and their younger sister Juniper are the elderly and eccentric Sisters Blythe whom Edie meets when she begins to unravel the mystery arrival of a long lost letter addressed to her mother.

Her search for answers takes her into the nooks and crannies of the castle and on a far darker exploration of Blythe family secrets. At the heart of the mystery is the children’s classic written by the sisters’ father ‘The True History of the Mud Man’. The novel moves from the evacuation of children during the bombing of London to the 1990s and some events are told from the point of view of more than one character. The time shifts are easy to follow and I liked getting a more rounded view of the Blythe family.

You have to look hard to find the meaning behind the name of this book, because in nearly 500 pages there are only a few references to it. Percy, the dominant sister, tells Edie that her family lives on in the stones of the castle and that it is ‘her duty to keep them’. As her father says the ‘ancient walls sing the distant hours and if he moves carefully about the castle, the distant hours forget to hide’.

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton