Homecoming by Kate Morton

阿德莱德山，1959年圣诞前夕： 在炎热的一天结束时，在宏伟而神秘的大宅院内的一条小溪旁，一位当地送货员有了一个可怕的发现。警方出动调查，坦比拉小镇卷入了南澳大利亚历史上最令人震惊和困惑的谋杀案之一。

60年后，杰斯是一名寻找故事的记者。她在伦敦生活和工作了近20年，现在发现自己被全职工作解雇了，正在为生计而挣扎。一个不知从何而来的电话将她唤回了悉尼，她深爱的祖母诺拉在她母亲无法照顾她的时候将她抚养成人，她摔倒了，被送往医院。

诺拉一直是一个充满活力和强大的存在：果断，鼓励，尽管她的年龄很小。当杰斯到医院看望她时，她惊奇地发现她的祖母身体虚弱，精神恍惚。更令人震惊的是，从诺拉的管家那里得知，诺拉在出事之前的几周里一直心不在焉，在通往阁楼的台阶上摔倒了–杰斯小的时候被禁止在这个地方玩。

在诺拉的房子里，杰斯做了一些自己的调查。在诺拉的卧室里，她发现了一本真实的犯罪书，记录了警方对一个埋藏已久的悲剧的调查：1959年圣诞节前夕的特纳家庭悲剧。当杰斯翻阅这本书时，她才发现自己的家庭与这起曾经闻名遐迩的犯罪之间存在着令人震惊的联系–这起犯罪一直没有得到圆满解决。而对于一个没有故事的记者来说，一个悬案可能是她能找到的最好的分心。

作为一部跨越几代人的史诗小说，本书询问我们会为我们所爱的人做什么，以及我们如何保护我们所说的谎言。它探讨了母性的力量、紧握的秘密的腐蚀作用以及真相的愈合性质。最重要的是，它是当今最优秀的作家之一所写的一部迷人的、令人无比满意的小说。

Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.

Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital.

Nora has always been a vibrant and strong presence: decisive, encouraging, young despite her years. When Jess visits her in the hospital, she is alarmed to find her grandmother frail and confused. It’s even more alarming to hear from Nora’s housekeeper that Nora had been distracted in the weeks before her accident and had fallen on the steps to the attic—the one place Jess was forbidden from playing in when she was small.

At loose ends in Nora’s house, Jess does some digging of her own. In Nora’s bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime—a crime that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find…

An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, and how we protect the lies we tell. It explores the power of motherhood, the corrosive effects of tightly held secrets, and the healing nature of truth. Above all, it is a beguiling and immensely satisfying novel from one of the finest writers working today.

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