This story is composed of the reflections of a 99-year old woman who has kept secrets for most of her life. And in order for her to pass peacefully into the greater beyond, she needs to share the truth that she has kept bottled up inside. Grace was a 14-year old impressionable girl when she entered the "great house" to begin her years of servitude and loyalty. She adheres to all of the many traditions that were part and parcel of the time at the beginning of World War I in England. Although there are flashes between today's world and the early part of the 20th Century up until the mid 1920s, we know little of what transpired in the intervening years unless told to us in passing. I agree with my reading group on one point...I wish that the author explored how Grace changed her social station after World War II.
I thought that Kate Morton painted the time, place and atmosphere of both Riverton House and London perfectly...often times, I felt as though I was with Grace, and sisters Hannah and Emmeline too. The reader knows at the start that the suicide of a famous poet was not a suicide at all, and that the two sister witnesses are linked in some way by prior events to what indeed happened. But there are even more secrets that are revealed along the way to the final ending.
If you have read, "The Thirteenth Tale" and enjoyed that book, you most certainly with find "The House at Riverton" equally riveting and a pleasure to read. ( )

A very enjoyable English novel; well written; good storyline, good characters. ( )

Enjoyable read stolen from work. I aleady had one of her books on my shelf in the U.K., so though it'd be good.

A film is about to be made about the goings on in an English country house, dredging up the past again, especially for one of the few remaining witnesses, a former ladies' maid. A mystery revealed piecemeal by her, as she retells her story for her grandson. ( )

I read this book while on vacation and I loved it. I really liked following the family saga and the tension. The mystery was also wonderful. I am anxious to read Morton's new novel. ( )

a nice gentle book about the memories of a 98 year old of the secret she had kept since a tragedy at the house in which she had started working as a housemaid and then progressed to lady's maid. There is a nice blend of her history as well as that of the family she worked for, particularly Hannah, to whom she was eventually a personal lady's maid. It flowed along nicely and had way of uncovering yet another surprising secret around unexpected corners. Not a taxing book, but good for a nice rainy afternoon, or a long train ride ( )