The Lake House, Kate Morton

The Lake House

By Kate Morton

(Tansley Reads Rating: 68%)

 

Icebreaker:  Numerous familiar adages are used throughout the book – “don’t shoot the messenger”, “least said soonest mended”, “knowing something as well as the back of my hand”.  An expression that may not be as familiar was also found in the book “the bigger the fire the better the man’s luck for the coming year”.  Do you have a favourite saying or is there an expression that is commonly used that sets you off?

 

Questions

 

1.  Mysteries, twists, family secrets, carefully placed red herrings, and unexpected revelations are all part of this story.  Morton introduces a number of potential “suspects” in baby Theo’s disappearance – Alice, Ben, Rose, even Mr. Llewellyn.  Which one first stood out to you as most likely and why? And did your ideas change as more information was revealed to you?

 

2.  How did you find the way this novel jumped between characters and time periods?  Did this style enhance or take away from the novel as you were reading?

                     

3.  The main characters, Sadie, Alice and Eleanor are all strong women but with flaws.  Which of them did you most identify with?

 

4.  After Sadie stumbles on Loeanneth, she’s drawn to it, returning daily and “no matter which way she headed out on her morning run, she always ended up in the overgrown garden.” (page 108)  What is it about Loeanneth that intrigues Sadie?

 

5. Well into the book we are lead to believe that Eleanor is, for the most part, an honest, loyal and caring person.  Later we find that there was a “crack” in her character (her affair with Ben).  How did you feel about her then?  Did this make you feel differently about her?

 

5a. What did you think about how Eleanor treated Constance after the tragedy? (Sending her to a nursing home by the ocean when she knew Constance hated the sound of the waves)

 

6.  How did Alice’s decisions that fateful Midsummer’s night affect the person she became?

                     

7.  How believable did you find the actions of Ben and Anthony? (How Ben reacts to Eleanor sending him away and how Anthony was (not) dealing with his “shell shock”?)

 

8.  Did the ending satisfy you?  If not, why?

 

9:  Quick round: What did you think of the book? Is there anything you want to discuss that we missed?