I will confess to the guilty pleasures of British/Irish novels (some more literary than others). Ian MacEwan, A S Byatt, Maeve Binchy? Yes, please. Therefore, I don’t know why I have put off reading any more of Kate Morton’s books. I adored The Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours and The Secret Keeper have been on my wish list for ages. Since the great library book scenario (where I requested about 50 books off my wish list from the library and received 20 all at once), I got two Morton books. They’ve been out for a while, so I felt no rush to get to them. Boy, was I wrong to put them off for so long. Sucked right in and dying to read and find out the secrets and story, I was lost to my family for many hours. While The Distant Hours could have been shorter, it moved very quickly. This multi-generational tale of a castle and its inhabitants was filled with twists, turns, and surprises. I loved it.  Even though it’s a bit dark in outlook (I always felt like it was raining), it would be a good beach read.