Book: The Clockmaker's Daughter

 Book: The Clockmaker's Daughter

Author: Kate Morton

Pages: 496

This is my 70th read for the year

This is a book that travels back and forth through time.  In the 19th century, a young girl who is abandoned in London is taken in by a couple that teaches her to be a theif.  As she grows up, she catches the eye on a young, budding artist who wants her to be his muse.  Their relationship blossoms into love, but when the young girl's "family" comes looking for her, a tragedy strikes, and the girl disappears.  

Over time, Birchwood Manor where the tragedy struck ebbs and flows with people.  It is bought and sold - left to go into disrepair.  All the while it holds a dark secreat.  As the story unfolds over the course of more than a century and a half, the people who come and go have lives that entertwine and piece together what happened that one fateful night so long ago.

This was a pretty good book.  You have to be really paying attention as you read, so this one took me a longer time than I was expecting.  It was well written, but the back and forth through time and all the characters is hard to keep up with at times.  It would have been nice to have a layout of the timelines and characters somehwere to refer to so you weren't constantly trying to remember who fit where.  The ending wasn't great.  I have read several Kate Morton books and have liked them pretty well, but this one  - after 496 pages - have an ending I felt was lacking.  

I suggest if you pick this one up, you are ready with pen and paper to keep a timeline for yourself so you can refer to it as this books hops around quite a bit.  Also - it cannot be one that you read, like I did, over the course of a few weeks when you have time.  I would make the time to read this one a few days in a row to keep the momentum of all the characters straight.

Stars: 3.5