From book club member extraordinaire,Mary Lee Dunn:
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton, 2006 ATRIA Books
The trick to enjoying a good read is in finding the right book. How lucky we are to have Julie LaSata as our shepherd to guide us to a book that will make you put everything else on hold until the book is finished. Once you become a Bakerville Library regular, and you let her know what you’re looking for, she’s so good at keeping her eye out for you and keeping you in literary heaven.
Once again, she’s done it for me with The House at Riverton. (Just happens the author is working on her PHD at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia where my daughter just spent the past semester.) It combines a fictional tale with an historical setting that is so ably described, you are transported back in time. Told through flashback, it is the story of a young serving girl, now a 98-year-old woman, and her relationship with the aristocratic family she served. It is set in England in the years around the time of World War I. As she recalls and retells her story you grow attached to her as an old woman and intrigued by the life and times when she lived. Throw in a mystery, deep secrets that never come together until the end, characters that you genuinely grow to care about, and you won’t be getting any chores done until you finish reflecting on the final outcome. If you liked Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, or Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell, this is a MUST read for you.
