"The House at Riverton" by Kate Morton

An audio book. It begins with part of a screenplay with imaginative camera angles. It's 1999. Grace, 98, in a care home, is invited by Ursula to a filmset related to her past. Ruth, Grace's daughter, drives her to the replica drawing room. The film plot concerns Hannah, her sister Emiline (who died in a car crash in 1924?) and Robert Hunter, a poet who had a relationship of sorts with each of them and who committed suicide in 1923.

Grace is very articulate - e.g. "Regardless how peripheral one's connection to calamity, it would appear that to live enough is to be rendered an object of interest"; "The armour of his face collapsed". The studio visit stirs her memories. Fatherless Grace had begun working early in the big house. She's clever, though uneducated. The staff assumed that her mother (who'd been in service earlier) had told her everything about the family and their preferences. There are hints that her mother had misbehaved - one wonders who Grace's father really was. There's an overlong section where we learn parts of the backstory - Grace chats to colleagues and overhears the children playing. The children have "the game" involving fantasies about distant lands and famous people provoked by notebooks in a black box. Only 3 could play it at a time.

Grace, being a maid, is almost invisible. She feels an empathy with Hannah. The family (children especially) speak while she's dusting etc. David brings home friend Robbie from Eton for Xmas 1915. Robbie's father is a famous scientist, made into a Lord. His mother killed herself - perhaps because of her husband's unfaithfulness. David and Robbie plan to enlist. Grace's servant friend Arthur is receiving white feathers when he goes into town.

Ruth might not be well. Her son is Marcus McCann, author of the Inspector Adams novels. Marcus's estranged wife has recently died. Grace gets a Walkman to use as a dictaphone. She collapses. She realises that she might not have long left.

David dies at the front. His grandfather dies a few days later. There's a succession issue - Frederick is no businessman. After WW1, Alfred returns with shellshock. Hannah buries the box and marries to gain independence. Grace goes to London with newly married Hannah. Her mother dies. She went back home. Alfred asks for her hand. She says yes. She suddenly realises that Frederick was her father. She changes her mind about Alfred, preferring to stay with Hannah - her half-sister. She likes Conan Doyle stories and Agatha Christie (who she's met). Robbie reappears after a decade. Frederick dies (suicide?). Emiline, party-goer, snatches Robbie from Hannah.

We learn that in 1938 Grace had a shotgun wedding, leaving the child (Ruth) with a relative while working in an army hospital. After WW2 she divorced and brought Ruth up alone. She slowly did an Archaeology degree then PhD, never bonding with Ruth but loving Marcus. At 65 she started living with Alfred.

Marcus has been out of contact for a year. She's taping memories for him. At the end he returns. They watch a pre-release DVD of the film. After she dies, Marcus plays her final tape. It's the final chapter, covering what really happened when Robbie died.

I'm not keen on the upstairs/downstairs aspect, the society meals, the Paris trip, or the length of the match-making intrigues. In some other ways it's rather literary -

• The book's also known as "The shifting fog" - a leit-motif that re-occurs.
• The need for 3 people/coordinates to fix a location is a recurring motif
• There's no omniscient voice. The information we get is what Grace overhears (long dialogues instead of short info-dumps), with added newspaper cuttings, etc. However, when we switch to Hannah's story, it's no longer Grace's PoV (though Grace claims that Hannah told her all the details).
• There's foreshadowing - short-term and long-term - and information is delayed for effect - e.g. we don't learn about Grace's academic career until a third of the way through, though there's one hint earlier. We learn little of her later life.
• There are multiple perspectives - retrospective, adapted for screenplay, etc.

Other reviews

• Bethany Latham (it also smacks heavily of McEwan’s Atonement and Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day in the ambiance and some of the characterization, as well as incorporating elements of other works. The overall effect of the novel is… derivative. It also lacks the sharpness and polish, respectively, of these two authors ... The atmosphere is the strong point of this tale)
• Kirkus review (Though the climactic revelation feels contrived, Morton’s characters and their predicaments are affecting, and she recreates the period with a sure hand.)
• Elaine Rockett (The concept of a three-person game was a clever theme throughout, and a kind of structure, and I think that Hannah chose wisely in the end. Read the book and you'll see what I mean, although it's a shame she had to choose at all. The story, as a whole, came across as a bit of a strategy and the theme of secrets featured and added intrigue.)
• goodreads
• Two Layers of Repetition in Kate Morton’s The House at Riverton (Kinga Latała)