I have to say this is the first time I have DNF a book written by Kate Morton. I got as far as page 310, then decided life was too short to waste on it.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the time slipping that made me throw in the towel, it was the inconsistency of the characters, particularly Jess, that finally wore me down.

The reader is led to believe that Jess adores Nora, her Grandmother, and this is why she returns to Australia when Nora is admitted to hospital. She knows, even if she refuses to believe it, that Nora will probably not be coming home again but, when the landline rings not once, but three times, she ignores it. Come on now, why didn't she pick up or, even better have them call her cell phone? We know she has one as she used it in the hospital while visiting Nora and, as we all know, would have left it for the hospital to call in an emergency as who doesn't have their phone with them at all times nowadays.

The story develops quite nicely when the plot is skipping between 2 eras (2018 and 1959), but then the Author brings in another perspective that, at times, muddled the whole darn thing. So nope, couldn't continue with it at all.

Oh, and next time the bloody phone rings Jess, pick it up. ( )

A contrived plot with two many lucky coincidences ( )

Z

I really liked this book. ( )

What would you do if you discovered that everything you thought you knew about your family was a lie? When journalist Jess Turner-Bridges gets a call that her grandmother, Nora, is in the hospital after suffering a fall...Jess leaves her home in London to return to Darling House in Sydney, Australia. Nora, had raised Jess for the majority of her childhood, had fallen when she was climbing to the attic. Jess doesn't quite understand this. What possibly could her elderly grandmother have needed so badly that she couldn’t wait for her home aide to come an assist her? When Jess arrives at the hospital, her confusion is made even greater by Nora’s desperately saying over and over, “The pages"! “Help me.... He’s going to take her from me.” Jess is determined to find the answers to these strange utterances by her grandmother... the need to help and comfort her grandmother is almost more than she can bear. This soon leads her to find a copy of a book that Nora had evidently been reading entitled "As If They Were Asleep" by Daniel Miller. When Jess begins to read, she finds almost more than she ever wanted to. The book tells in glaring details the story of the shocking deaths in 1959 of Nora’s sister-in-law, Isabel and three of Isabel’s children and the disappearance and presumed death of Isabel’s baby. Jess didn't know anything about these deaths that were presumed to be a murder-suicide. She feels betrayed that her grandmother had kept this secret from her, and she immediately vows to do whatever it takes to learn more about her family. The author beautifully weaves together what Jess had learned from her sleuthing, segments from Daniel Miller’s book along with flashbacks from 1959 and moments told from Jess’s estranged mother, Polly’s perspective. At times the pacing is a bit confusing. While avid mystery readers will likely figure out what the "big twist" is long before it's revealed, the writing here produces surprises for even the sharpest of "armchair detectives". It's a slow-paced story but if you stick with it, you will be rewarded in spades for your patience. ( )