The House at Riverton

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars | 9,190 ratings

Price: 17.05

Last update: 01-02-2025


About this item

Summer 1924: on the night of a glittering society party by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses are sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, and they will never speak to each other again. Winter 1999: Grace Bradley, 98, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet’s suicide. Ghosts awaken and memories, long consigned to the dark reaches of Grace’s mind, begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge – something history has forgotten but Grace never could. Set as the Edwardian summer finally surrenders to the decadent twenties, The House at Riverton is a multi-million-copy bestselling novel and one of the most successful debuts of all time.


Top reviews from the United States

Jane
5.0 out of 5 stars Arrived in great shape
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2024
Haven't read the novel yet. Finishing up another one. Looking forward to reading it
M. Galindo
4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant Read For An Author's Debut
Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2013
This novel was Kate Morton's first novel, and one can tell she had not perfected her craft. However, she has a beautiful style of writing that I find wonderfully engaging. The areas that I find distracting, especially in this novel, are her tendency to heavy-handed foreshadowing and the names she picks for her characters. (Jemima, Ursula and Gytha - really?!?!)

The story's central character is Grace, who we are introduced to when she is in her late 90s and in a nursing home. She is approached by young woman producing a documentary about about mysterious murder that occurred at an old English manor house called "Riverton." Grace had worked at Riverton as maid in her teens and was there during this mysterious murder, and agrees to meet with the young woman in the hopes of providing accurate details of the period. Yet, Grace knows a secret about that event, and remains to be seen whether she will reveal it.

One can tell easily the author was most likely heavily influenced by many novels and/or movies in writing this. It has been stated that Kate Morton is intrigued with Gothic novels, and that is reflected here. But it is also easy to see shades of "Rebecca," "Titanic," and "Upstairs/Downstairs." Some might say the author "stole" these ideas. I'm not so sure. The tales told in these 3 stories are not all that original, and they are stories that are timeless. That the author was influenced is easy to see, and because I enjoyed 2 of the 3 (I've never seen "Upstairs/Downstairs"), I can appreciate the effort.

I do enjoy Kate Morton's writing. I believe she has a way with words and descriptions of places and people. I felt as though I was in the era and in a large English manor house, experiencing the sharp difference between staff and family. Grace is more than a little difficult to define - she is not easily read - and that was frustrating as I read the novel. However, the more I read, the more clear it became as to what and how her personality was defined by her experiences. While I believe most of us want to truly like and relate to the protagonists in the stories we read, sometimes those individuals come with faults. A good author will never make their protagonist a perfect person. Grace was like that to me - she could be endearing and pleasant, but she had a bit of sharpness to her.

I enjoyed this novel very much. The reason I gave it 4 stars was because the author had not figured out the art of foreshadowing and that bothered me. It's okay to give a reader subtle hints to have them attempt to figure something out. It's quite another to figuratively hit them over the head with a sledge hammer to make your point. I also really dislike some of the names she chooses for her characters. I dislike them so much, I find them distracting. It's okay to use a common name such as Ann, Mary,Elizabeth. Character names don't always have to the weird and way out.
Tigger
5.0 out of 5 stars Will be waiting for more from this author...
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2008
I read a preliminary review of this in a library journal and knew I was going to have to snatch it up the moment it came out, which I did when it was released last month. It's not often one can say that about a debut novel, so I really have to take my hat off to Kate Morton, because what a debut it is!

As seems to be the case in just about every novel I've read lately, the story jumps back and forth from the past to the present. I don't always care for that scheme, but it's so appropriate here that it makes all the difference in the flow of the story. Grace Reeves is an old woman now, living out her last days in an English retirement home, when she's approached by a film-maker making a movie about a family Grace used to work for - in particular, about a popular poet from the Edwardian age who is said to have committed suicide on the family's estate. Like every young talent taken too soon, Robbie Hunter has become a legend in the way of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. This movie about his death is not particularly novel, but it's the first time anyone has thought to approach Grace about what she might remember from that time. Grace was a servant in the Ashbury family for many years, as her mother had been before her, and it's from Grace's first day at Riverton that she starts her tale.

Grace is almost exactly the same age as Hannah, one of the Ashbury daughters, and feels an immediate bond with her. When Hannah marries years later, Grace stays with her as a lady's maid instead of marrying herself - one of many unfortunate missteps made among the intertwined lives of these people. Grace learns some of the family's most alarming secrets, including one involving Grace's own mother, and one final, shattering tragedy brings home the fact that deception of even the most innocent kind can wreak untold havoc. Grace has spent a lifetime trying to forget the events of her time at Riverton and her role in them, and is now forced to relive the whole thing all over again. She always knew the day would come.

This story is so excellently told, spun out with such perfect flow and timing, that I find it hard to believe this is Morton's first published novel. I haven't been this excited about a new writer since Carol Goodman came on the scene seven or eight years ago. I'll follow Morton just as devotedly if she continues on in this vein. The House at Riverton is an excellent, captivating story.
Coleen
3.0 out of 5 stars Not as Described
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2024
The book itself seems interesting so far, but I ordered a hardcover and received a paperback copy.

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