A Captivating Tale of Mystery and Intrigue Set in 1920s England: "The House at Riverton"

Liz S: I ordered this book from this listing specifically because I have all the rest of Kate Morton’s older titles with the original covers, and wanted this one to match. However, it came with the new style cover. :(

United States on Oct 28, 2023

Cynthia Sally Haggard: Although there were flaws to this debut novel, what really bowled me away were the clever plot twists. From the very beginning ~ the bad dream that 99-year-old Grace had ~ to the very end ~ the horrifying scene by the lake ~ Ms. Morton teases the reader with titillating glimpses about what exactly happened when a famous WWI poet (based on Wilfred Owen?) supposedly committed suicide.

Like all good storytellers, Kate Morton has taken that last scene, cut it up into bits and sprinkled it throughout the novel. What is even more remarkable is that even though we know from the beginning of this novel that a famous poet was shot on that fateful day in 1924, the ending is still a surprise. It takes a lot of talent to pull that off!

Some have complained that Ms. Morton hits the reader over the head with the sledgehammer of foreshadowing, but I really didn’t experience it that way. I thought the foreshadowing was handled masterfully.

What didn’t work so well was the pacing. Kate Morton has a real talent for description and for setting, but too often the pacing was relentlessly slow and the emotional range too small. For example, Grace’s final realization about who...

United States on Sep 27, 2023

Pomegranate: I quite enjoyed reading this book. The pace of the book was rather slow and sluggish at the beginning and also the middle section which I found quite boring to read at times, but then the pace quickens when the plot starts unfolding itself and I found myself getting immersed into the storyline and eager to find out how it all ends.

SPOILER ALERT:
I'm confused as to why Hannah chose to write to Grace in short-hand in the letter she left her on the bed as she knew that Grace doesn't know how to read short-hand. What was the intention? It made me think that Hannah wasn't 100% committed to the plan of eloping with Robbie because she had earlier expressed her hesitations when Robbie asked her to run away with him and start a new life. Back in those days, it would have been a scandal. It was unthinkable for her get a divorce - it was frowned upon by the society back then. This made me think that Hannah actually wanted Grace to discover her plan - she wanted to be stopped. She knew Grace too well, knew that she would open and read her letter to Emmeline, which prompted Grace to fetch for help and stop Hannah and Robbie's getaway plan.

A good story. I'm interested in...

United Kingdom on Oct 28, 2019

one of me: if it were not for her style of language and her gift to get you enthralled, you would perhaps not read more then one of Kate Morton’s extensive works - protagonists, sceneries and themes reverted in variations. BUT the way she puts her words and spins the long and winding road of her stories, takes you into other places, other times. “The Shifting Fog” (alias “The House at Riverton”), for example, reminds me of the thrill I find in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, others, like “The Forgotten Garden”, of Charles Dickens.

This gift of Kate Morton’s to charm and take you with her, makes her books worth reading, at least for those who still have a sense of romance and like to take their time for a good, long read: Discover and get carried away.

Germany on Aug 31, 2016

V. G. Harwood: I've just finished writing my MA dissertation on the English country house as a metaphor in fiction and during the course of my studies I came across one critic who stated that all country house fiction was derivative, owing a debt of gratitude to the country house novels which had preceded it. The House at Riverton is a really clear example of this - for whilst this is a lovely story, with some high quality writing in it, it's just another English country house novel - there's absolutely nothing new in here and if you've read one English country house novel, well you've read this book already.

Told from the servant's perspective, this novel covers an era of enormous change for English country house estates, the years covering the First World war, where attitudes towards class changed so vastly and men who had risked their lives at the behest of their "betters" were no longer willing to stand behind a chair and serve the very people who had placed them in danger once the war was over. There's all the nostalgia inherent in this book for some lost past time which may (but most probably was not) better in some undefined way. If you've read Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day,...

United Kingdom on Jul 30, 2015

Amazon Customer: Great if you like long tragic romances, horridl if you prefer a good mystery without schmaltz. This story drags on and on. Very predictable in many ways. I did not find any of the female characters sympathetic, and wished one or more of them had died early, instead of the poor poet. The narrator Grace came across as repressed and dim-witted, with skewed loyalties and priorities, Emmeline as silly and shallow, Hannah as a selfish woman who hurt everyone she came into contact with and did not have the courage of her convictions. What the poet saw in her is the real mystery.

United States on Jan 06, 2015

Babsso: If you love Downton Abbey you will love this book. I loved the way it was written with the old lady who had been a servant at the house remembering her past (just like the titanic film) as she is at the end of her life. So often when I sat with my own gran she would drift off into a kind of dream and go pale, I can only think this author has experienced the same with an elderly relative. She captures perfectly how the old drift from present to past, and how past incidents are remembered so clearly whilst they experience the loss on here and now.
Unlike the other reviews I did not find it a slow start. I like all the background to get you in the scene and none of it was superfluous to the story. Masterfully written often with a poetic turn of phrase the author hints at past scandle and allows you to work the story as you go along. It will magically transport you back to a time when servants cared more for their masters and mistresses than their own lives and happiness. The devotion and loyalty these people felt to their employers is hard to comprehend in this day and age. When the elite could cover up scandle so well, angling events to suit their need and often changing how we...

United Kingdom on Dec 26, 2012

Sverre Svendsen: Kate Morton did her research before writing this book, and it shows. She succinctly portrays aristocratic English life during WWI and the twenties. An underlying theme is the emergence of increasing courage by women to break the shackles of subservience to their station as defined by the patriarchy and social convention. Perhaps being reined by such a strong female, Queen Victoria, for the latter half of the nineteenth century did have leave an imprint on the twentieth as to what women could accomplish. But after her death, although women continued to admire the Queen's strength, society had grown weary of the staid, repressive, conservative mores and kow-towing to the establishment.

The main characters in the book form a soul triptych: Hannah, an intelligent, pensive, reflective adventurer; her sister Emmerline, a free-spirited, rebellious non-conformist; and Grace, the narrator, a shy, servile girl loyal to her masters, an observer forever yearning for acceptance by others. Robbie, a poet, being burdened by emotional wreckage from the war, inserts himself indelibly into these characters' lives.

This work may be one of a few novels from the first decade of the 21st...

Canada on Aug 03, 2011

Joseph P. Menta, Jr.: Currently available only as an audiobook (or audio download), "The Shifting Fog" is well worth the time of anyone who enjoys period romances and gothic storytelling. Over the course of the narrative's 16 compact discs, the story is sprawling yet intimate, intellectual yet warm and inviting. There's a dose of modernity, too: the 20's female characters are always talking about social issues, such as societal limitations on females, escaping traditional roles, etc., plus many scenes are literally set in modern times, as the ninety-something year old Grace looks back and remembers her years as a lady's maid at a British estate. The sympathetic characters (some "upstairs", some "downstairs"), interesting plotting and sensitive, compelling narration by Caroline Lee make "The Shifting Fog" easy to recommend.

United States on Jul 02, 2007

Liz: If your granny sat down with you to tell you a tale on cold winter's night, this would be it. Expertly written with flashbacks to the youth of the main character in a period setting of 1914 England and the untold mystery of the destined-to-be-famous people who employed her back then. A tragic tale of love, betrayal, and the consequences of the smallest deceptions in life.

The audio version was narrated by Caroline Lee whose every word hold so many nuances and inflections you are brought into intimate contact with the characters. I was entralled!

United States on Apr 18, 2007