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  • The Distant Hours

  • By: Kate Morton
  • Narrated by: Louise Brealey
  • Length: 21 hrs and 30 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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The Distant Hours

By: Kate Morton
Narrated by: Louise Brealey
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Publisher's Summary

Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long-lost letter arrives with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, Edie begins to suspect that her mother’s emotional distance masks an old secret.  

Evacuated from London as a 13-year-old girl, Edie’s mother was chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe and taken to live at Milderhurst Castle with the Blythe family.  

Fifty years later, as Edie chases the answers to her mother’s riddle, she too is drawn to Milderhurst Castle and the eccentric Blythe sisters. Old ladies now, the three still live together as the twins nurse Juniper, whose abandonment by her fiancé in 1941 plunged her into madness.  

Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst Castle, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time to be uncovered ...

©2010 Kate Morton (P)2023 Bolinda Publishing

Critic Reviews

"There's a rewarding, bittersweet payoff in the author's most gothic tale yet."(Kirkus)

"An enthralling romantic thriller...will stun readers." (Publishers Weekly)

"An absorbing and haunting read." (Woman & Home)

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Poor narration

Morton seems to be consistently ill-served with (expensive) performers who don’t match the task. I deliberately chose this version to escape Caroline Lee’s strangulated attempts at ‘accents’. Louise Brearely’s flat, inexpressive narration almost made me long for Lee (without the ‘accents’ please).

Always a shame as Morton’s book’s are generally evocative family sagas made to to lose yourself in - but difficult to do when the narration is so irritating.

(Also, as I’m finishing a Morton binge, take care with repetition! Overuse of London 1941 … & the phrase ‘truth be told’!)

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