My most recent read gives an account of the breakdown of a well-known British family as seen through the eyes of one of its servants. At 14, Grace Reeves leaves home to work for her mother's former employers at Riverton House. She is the same age as Hannah, the stubborn middle child who visits her uncle, Lord Ashbury, at Riverton House with her sister Emmeline and bother David. Grace is somewhat obsessed and fascinated by the children and enjoys observing their comings and goings. Fast forward 80 years to when Grace is nearly 100. She is approached by a filmmaker working on a movie about the family and desires Grace to fact-check certain aspects of the story. The memories have Grace and thus the reader going back and forth between 1999 and post WWI. The story mainly revolves around sisters Hannah and Emmeline, who were present when a family friend, the young poet R.S. Hunter, allegedly committed suicide at Riverton. Grace suggests throughout the novel that no one knows the real story, and as she reports Hannah's schemes to have her own life and the curdling of younger Emmeline's jealousy, the truth about the poet's death is revealed.
This was a gripping novel that kept me enthralled and interested. I knew there would be a twist at the end and figured I had riddled it out. I was wrong, which, in my eyes means the novelist did her job in creating a thrilling mystery that delivered in the end. Read it - a great debut novel from Morton who I look forward to reading again.
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