And I'm very glad it did because in Kate Morton's hands it isn't just a letter; it's a gateway to the mystery of the Mud Man, a door that opens long buried secrets for the sisters of Milderhurst castle and the spark that sets a flame to the story of our intrepid narrator, Edie Burchill.
When a letter that's been lost for 50 years arrives in the hands of Edie's mother Meredith, Edie witnessesses an emotional reaction that she very rarely sees in her usually stoic mother and her curiosity is awakened. The letter sparks a hunt for truth behind the secrets that permeate the novel, secrets kept by the mother she realises she's never really known, secrets behind a past intertwined with an ancient castle and the secrets buried in The True History of the Mud Man; a children's book written by the mad and mysterious Raymond Blythe.
From the very first moment the mystery surrounding the Mud Man and the three sisters Blythe, inhabitants of the now crumbling Milderhurst Castle, will inexorably draw you into their world; the prophetic nature of the narrator's voice leaving the answers tantalisingly out of reach until Morton is willing to give them. I was caught, as Edie must have been, in the story of the Blythe family - so much so that for once I wasn't tempted to read the end of the novel before even getting to the middle, I wanted this novel to unfold to me, to give up its secrets one by one.
And it doesn't disappoint. In the brilliantly executed voices of all the main protagonists of the novel the pieces of the puzzle slowly knit themselves together, making the reader feel as though they are some kind of omnipotent power; observing all these snapshot's in time, glueing the staggered pieces back together and most importantly giving you a big head. Because this is the trick, you may think you know the answers, you may have a clue, or an inkling or even be generally on the mark, but you won't; you won't have any idea until right at the very end, when slowly it begins to dawn on you exactly what happened, exactly what the answers are. And how fantastic is that? When a true mystery digs its fat, sharp claws into you and refuses to let go until you have read the very last word. Fantastic.
Of course this book is also so much more than a mystery, it is a snapshot into the ties that bind us; to our family, to our homes, to our love and ultimately to our loss. It is the story of what happens when dark secrets eat away at our hearts, a story of redemption and heart-rending 'What if's?' that lodge somehow in the readers head and refuse to move.
When I looked at the size of the book I was apprehensive with that same creeping doubt that always whispers in my head when I see a tome of a book - will it entertain me all the way through? But Morton is clever, revealing pieces of the puzzle piece by piece like a dance of the seven veils. Each chapter needs to be there, each voice, each character, they all have a part to play and they play it oh so well, coming to life in Morton's clear talent for description, using her words as a diving board with which to launch from. Even after finishing this book it lingered in my head for days. Highly, thoroughly recommended.
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