If you enjoy doing jigsaws, you'll know that the conventional way is to finish the corners and the edges, then look for distinctive blocks of colour with the help of the picture on the box. But what if there's no picture, no box, and precious few edge pieces ? If you're the type to rise to that sort of challenge, you'll be hooked by this complicated story.

If there were a picture – if the plot were presented logically – it would be a simple one: a house party of Victorian artists ends abruptly when the host's fiancée is shot and a valuable jewel goes missing, along with the host's mysterious muse and model. The house, appropriately, is the hero of the tale; “Place is a doorway through which one steps across time” and over the century that follows the fatal party, the house changes roles, as a school, a museum, a refuge for evacuees, while the people who know it, work in it, live in it, or simply love it as the heart of a half-remembered childhood story gradually - jigsaw piece by piece – reveal the secrets of that Victorian weekend. Starting today in an archivist's office, the story moves to the slums of early Victorian London, the heady bubble of the pre-Raphaelites and the pioneers of photography, the home front in two world wars and a very contemporary research project.

This is familiar ground for Kate Morton; multiple voices and multiple time-frames, but her skill is that each voice, each moment in time is quite distinctive, and the connections that are made as the picture is slowly revealed fall quite unexpectedly into place, just as a jigsaw piece unexpectedly only makes sense when you find where it's meant to go in the picture. Thus, a man who is just a name in the early pages turns out to be closely linked to a central character much later on, but it's even later still before his critical role in the story becomes dramatically clear. In the same way, the unusual name of an elderly relative in the present day crops up in the person of a wartime child and whole new web of relationships opens up to throw a fresh dimension into the story.

Paradoxically, the rather abrupt ending of the book is a mark of how well the story is told – part of the reader's disappointment comes from wishing that the characters could carry on telling the story of their lives in the light of all that they have discovered. But that might be much too simple a read, after the fragmentary mosaic of the chapters bringing the story to the present day.

Nigel Melville

I love Kate Morton's previous books and was intrigued to see if this could reach the same high level of creative writing. It didn't - it surpassed them! Engrossing & exceptionally well written. I loved the characters, the emerging back stories & the way everything drew together. I'm not going to add any spoilers, just read it - it's exceptional & a cracking good read

I enjoyed most of this book: a complex tale told over several generations.
Not quite 5 stars though, as I found it drifted slightly in the third quarter, and I got mixed up between the various characters and the different time spans occasionally. Overall though, it is a fascinating story, beautifully written, with a very surprising twist at the end.

You are transported to a world of mystery. The story is told across various timeframes and is choc-a-bloc full of characters so is challenging to keep track of who what and where. It shows how an event can kaleidoscope through various generations Something happened in Birchwood Park in the summer of 1862 and the discovery of a photograph is the catalyst for the revelation of the secret.
A lengthy read at 600 pages but thoroughly enjoyable.

A diamond of a book! Kate Morton has packed this book with lots of different characters which took concentration to read but boy was it worth it.
I’m looking forward to reading her previous books now.

This is the first book I have read of Kate Morton's. Whilst I don't usually mind books that flit back and forth between different times lines I found this one quite difficult to connect with at times and took me a while to get used to the style of the writing. The complicated plot also made this difficult to follow and I feel this could have flowed a little better. You have to be very dedicated once you start this book at it certainly is a long read.
All in all though this is worth persevering with and is an interesting read and the plot certainly gains a faster pace towards the end making it a gripping read.

'The Clockmaker's Daughter' is a complex novel spanning several eras dating from the mid-1800s to present day. There are several main characters all tied together with a single thread which weaves through the ages to knot everything together into a neat bow at the end. There's love stories, mystery, intrigue, history and art all thrown together into one beautiful melting pot. It will be a great choice for someone who loved AS Byatt's 'Possession'.

My only complaint was the complexity, which at times seemed a little excessive with the number of characters and time periods covered.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton has become my new favourite book of the year. I was offered this book for early review, but a teething baby meant I have only just managed to read it and write my review, but it was worth the wait.

I didn’t want this book to end because it was wonderful, but it had one of the best final paragraphs I have read for a long time.

I chose to read this book because I have read and enjoyed all her other books and The Forgotten Garden is among my favourite books but this one may surpass even that one.

She is known as Lily Millington. Nobody knows or remembers her real name anymore as it was such a long time ago, but she remembers the start of the start of the summer like it was yesterday. By the end of summer one young woman had been shot dead, a priceless diamond had been stolen and the owner of the house Edward Radcliffe faced a life left in ruins.

Over one hundred and fifty years later archivist Elodie Winslow discovers two seemingly unrelated objects in a satchel: a sketch of a house and a photograph of a beautiful Victorian woman.

Who is the woman and what is her story? The Clockmaker’s Daughter is a well-written tale of art, love and loss.

“We came to Birchwood Manor because Edward said it was haunted. It wasn’t, not then.” So, the unknown narrator begins.

One of the things I enjoyed most about The Clockmaker’s Daughter was the style in which the chapters from Lily’s point of view were written. For example:

“All was light, but it did not last for long.

You knew that already, though, for there would be no story to tell if the warmth had not lasted. No one is interested in quiet, happy summers that end as they began. “

During one of the first scenes including Elodie she is working in the archive when she stumbles across a satchel she hasn’t seen before with some initials on she doesn’t recognise. In it is a picture of a Victorian woman inside a document holder belonging to a man named James Stratton and a sketchbook of a house that seems oddly familiar to her.

“She knew this place. The memory was as strong as if she’d been there, and yet somehow Elodie knew that it was a location she’d visited only in her mind.

The words came to her then as clear as birdsong at dawn: Down the winding lane and across the meadow broad, to the river they went with their secrets and their sword.

And she remembered it was a story that her mother used to tell her. A child’s bedtime story.”

Without really knowing why she is doing it she takes the sketchbook with her when she leaves the building and she heads for her father’s house to ask him what he remembers about the origins of the story.

Her mother, a famous musician, is long dead so she cannot find out from her and her father is unable to help her, so she decides to look for answers elsewhere.

The Clockmakers Daughter contains some of the best writing I have read about the interaction between a ghost and the people living in the house she inhabits. She calls those people ‘visitors.’

“There are some to whom I have warmed. The Special Ones. The poor, sad soldier shouting in the night. The widow whose angry weeping fell between the floorboards. And, of course the children – the lonely schoolgirl who wanted to go home, the solemn little lad who sought to mend his mother’s heart.”

It was interesting to hear more about her life and what led her to be trapped in the house and to learn her perspective on the events leading to her death. Also, to learn what she knows about what others think about her.

“I am remembered as a thief. An imposter. A girl who rose above her station, who was not chaste.”

A lot happens in The Clockmaker’s Daughter, but each character and event belong and slots in perfectly. Not one word is wasted.

This was a fabulous book full of so many intriguing characters I couldn’t possibly pick a favourite.

The Clockmakers Daughter is a complex book told from different characters perspective story spans from the 1860's to present day and really centres round Edward Radcliffe .I found it quite difficult following the jumping timelines and sometimes confusing I felt I should be taking notes to understand the characters not relaxing and enjoying the book .The story is very atmospheric and well written but I did find it hard to connect to the characters I think the star of the book was Birchwood Manor .Many thanks to the Publisher ,the Author and NetGalley for my review copy in return for an honest review .

I'm really sad that I didn't finish this book because I'm a big fan of Kate Morton's work and was really looking forward to this read, but I found the separate strands so disparate that I just couldn't get into the book. I won't review this further as I didn't finish reading it.

Kate Morton returns with a bang. A gorgeous story, true to her style but this time with a twist. I loved the characters: strong, determined women; the lyricism of the text, but especially what I consider the theme of the novel: the spirit of a house. Strongly recommended!

For those of us that love a rich multi-layered dual time-line story The Clockmaker’s Daughter fits the bill perfectly.

Telling the story across multiple protagonists ranging from the Victorian era in 1862 until 2017, much ground is covered weaving times, places and of course romances to delight and intrigue the reader. At the very heart of the story is a house, Birchwood Manor which lies on the bank of the River Thames.

The first owner was a successful artist, Edward Radcliffe part of the group of the ‘Magenta Brotherhood’, who bought the house on a whim. Indeed it is with this group that he decamped with on a summer break to do artisty things at Birchwood Manor in 1862. His younger sister was delighted to be invited along but while they were staying his fiancée was killed and Edward sunk into a depression.

In 2017 Elodie Winslow an archivist is herself engaged to be married. A mysterious satchel connected to the archive she is in charge of and the satchel contains a sketchbook. She also finds a picture of a beautiful woman wearing a dress that provides some inspiration for her wedding dress. But she can’t leave it at that and she begins to investigate who could have owned the items, and that just leads to more mysteries to solve.
Between these two time periods we meet seemingly unconnected characters to either time line, there is a school for young ladies, a war widow and her young children… and a ghost. Now I’m not known for my love of ghosts but fortunately this isn’t one of the scary variety more a soul who links the owners and inhabitants of the house, giving us insight on all that has seen through the years, and she can be quite cutting about some of them. So despite my usual reluctance to entertain anything that has the hint of the supernatural, this mysterious woman, known as Birdie Bell, the clockmaker's daughter, became one of my favourite characters of the entire novel..

This is a book to devote yourself to otherwise, especially in the early chapters, it could become a little elusive. The story takes a while to get into and I found sorting the characters out and putting them in context took a while, but as time goes on they become more distinct and able to entertain not only in their own right, they become part of the whole story. This is a book where you definitely feel you’ve been on a journey; from pickpockets in Covent Garden to beautiful artist’s novels, to young girls who are sent to boarding school, adrift from their families, to a woman who has lost nearly all that she holds dear. And on the characters and backstories come until the present day to Elodie who lost her mother, a talented musician, when she was a young girl and can’t work out how or why. With an impending marriage and a mother-in-law who is keen to play the recordings of her mother’s performances at the wedding the past is at the forefront of her mind.
The ending is delightful and neatly rounded off what at times could seem like a tale of all the various heart-aches a human can endure. Although this wasn’t my personal favourite of Kate Morton’s novels it is definitely a story that will haunt me, and may even have got me passed my hatred of those ghostly beings!

I'd like to say a huge thank you to the publishers Mantle who allowed me to read and absorb a myriad of lives. This unbiased review is my thanks to them, and to Kate Morton for continuing to write such amazing tales. It takes a great deal of skill to create characters who at times crept uninvited into my thoughts, distracting me from my work or the real people around me. I love a book with a puzzle in it, and so this novel that had a whole string of them was an immensely satisfying read.

First Published UK: 20 September 2018
Publisher: Mantle
No of Pages: 592
Genre: Historical Fiction
Amazon UK

A family mystery set over many generations. I enjoyed this book very much,the characters were likeable and interesting and the story keeps you guessing.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
At work, Elodie Winslow stumbles upon a mysterious satchel containing a notebook and a photo from the 19th century. As an archivist, it is Elodie’s job to unravel where the satchel came from, who the notebook belonged to and who is the young woman on the picture. In addition to Elodie’s research, we hear from a young woman’s spirit (the mysterious woman in the photograph whose real name no one remembers) as she sheds light on her past life as a painter’s muse.
Ok, this is going to be a first on this blog (and it hasn’t happened many times before in my life) but I couldn’t finish this book. I didn’t even get halfway through and I had to stop. It’s a complex book, told from different characters’ perspectives and unlike the last few good books that I’ve read, I couldn’t follow this story. The characters are all very similar and I lost track of who was talking and when, it even took me a while to figure out that one of the narrators is the mysterious woman’s spirit reminiscing about her past; I thought we had jumped timelines, but no.
I can’t quite figure out what it is about this book that made me give up. God knows I like a complex book but this one is just confusing. It’s not badly written at all and I’m sure the author has put a lot of work into it, but it didn’t hook me in at all. I had a little sneak on Goodreads and was pleased to see that a few people felt the same as me. I’m usually the kind of person that will force herself to see a book through to the end, but someone on Goodreads said something along the lines of ‘Life’s too short to waste on a book you’re not enjoying’ and that resonated with me.
I’ve never read anything else by Kate Morton so I can’t judge the rest of her work, but I would definitely give this one a miss.

Again, a lovely book by this author. There are several unexpected twists and turns that lead the reader on different trails during the story but the final explanations are a surprise. Definitely recommended.

A beautifully written story by Kate Morton about love, murder and so much more...I really enjoyed the book, even though it did take me a couple of days to read as it is quite long, full of characters and alternating between two timelines. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read it before the publication date!

I found this a bit of a slow burn, it can't be rushed though, you have to really invest your time in it. Lots of characters to learn and different periods in time, but that's what I love about Kate Morton's books. This one, although not my favourite, was still well worth the staying power!

This is Kate Morton at her best.
A multi faceted story line with characters that at the beginning seem to have no connection but as the story continues become inexplicably connected.
A Victorian summer house party hosted by Edward Radcliffe an upcoming artist which ends in tragedy has far reaching implications for generations to come and it is left to Elodie Winslow an archivist to uncover the real events.
It is a story of love on so many levels and will enchant the reader as soon as they turn the first page.
Cannot praise it enough .
Five stars and more.

What a wonderful and moving story! Kate Morton is one of my favourite authors and I was so thrilled to read this book. When archivist Elodie Winslow comes across a satchel containing an old photo and an artist’s sketchbook, it leads her to Birchwood Manor, a house with many secrets. The reader is taken on an adventure across time, weaving interconnected stories from the mid 1800s to the present day.

This is such a cleverly crafted tale where a house is very much one of the characters. There are multiple first person and third person narrators, one of whom is a ghost. There are also multiple timelines and these are artfully and ingeniously linked together - this definitely kept me on my toes to keep up with what was going on. It's beautifully and evocatively written. The descriptions are so vivid and easy to visualise - I could quite picture myself on the river bank looking over my shoulder to gaze at the gables of Birchwood Manor. I felt transported into the lives of these fascinating characters and was so immersed that it was quite a shock when the story ended. I even shed a tear!

Part mystery, part love story across and beyond time, I loved it.

This book was an atmospheric, intriguing read. It was based on a house that people were strangely drawn to. You could tell that the characters were all interlinked and it was fascinating to try and work out what the common ground was.
The story and its effects stretched across the generations. `there were some twists and turns along the way but the overall impression was of a gentle read.