The clockmaker's daughter - Kate Morton

From the bestselling author of The House at Riverton and The Secret Keeper, Kate Morton brings us her trademark mix of secrets, lies, and intricately layered mysteries in her sixth novel, The Clockmaker's Daughter.

My real name, no one remembers.
The truth about that summer, no one else knows.

In the depths of a nineteenth-century winter, a little girl is abandoned in the narrow streets of London. Adopted by a mysterious stranger, she becomes in turn a thief, a friend, a muse, and a lover. Then, in the summer of 1862, shortly after her eighteenth birthday, she retreats with a group of artists to a beautiful house on a quiet bend of the Upper Thames . . . Tensions simmer and one hot afternoon a gun-shot rings out. A woman is killed, another disappears, and the truth of what happened slips through the cracks of time.

Over the next century and beyond, Birchwood Manor welcomes many newcomers but guards its secret closely - until another young woman is drawn to visit the house because of a family secret of her own . . .

As the mystery of The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton begins to unravel, we discover the stories of those who have passed through Birchwood Manor since that fateful day in 1862. Intricately layered and richly atmospheric, it shows that, sometimes, the only way forward is through the past.

Kate Morton grew up in the mountains of south-east Queensland and lives now with her husband and young sons
in London. She has degrees in dramatic art and English literature, specializing in nineteenth-century tragedy and contemporary gothic novels.

Kate has sold over ten million copies of her novels in thirty-three languages, across thirty-eight countries. The Shifting Fog, published internationally as The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours and The Secret Keeper have all been number one bestsellers around the world. Each novel won the Australian Book Industry award for General Fiction Book of the Year.

Morton writes with such page-turning ease, you can easily lose yourself in her world for days
The Pool

Morton knows how to eke out tantalizing secrets and drama
Sunday Telegraph (Australia)

Big houses, dark secrets and ruined lives all play their part in the latest from the best-selling Morton. The perfect book to curl up with as the evenings draw in.
i newspaper

The Clockmaker's Daughter is an ambitious, complex, compelling historical mystery with a fabulous cast of characters. This is Kate Morton at her very best
Kristin Hannah, bestselling author of The Nightingale

A centuries-spanning epic
Metro

When it comes to epic and captivating novels, Kate Morton is up there with the best
Heat

A time-travelling tale of lust, deception and lies. Think The Miniaturist meets The Little Stranger, woven together with a contemporary thread . . . It's the perfect spooky autumnal doorstop to (dis)comfort you through the twilight hours
The Pool

This is an immersive, beautifully told story which was made to be devoured on a drizzly Sunday afternoon with a round of crumpets and a pot of tea
Red Magazine

Moving back and forth in time, Morton weaves her disparate stories together involving murder, theft, love and loss, secrets and lies. She's a deft and consummate storyteller
Woman & Home

The Clockmaker's Daughter is packed with rich historical detail and seductive lyricism . . . An exciting, atmospheric reading treat that moves seamlessly through time and space, and ensures that Morton retains her place in the pantheon of much-loved historical novelists
Lancashire Evening Post