THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN by Kate Morton, 2009.

A sprawling story spanning three generations, involving an abandoned child in 1913 Australia, a talented writer of fairy tales, and a granddaughter who discovers a new life for herself on the coast of Cornwall. When a little girl arrives at Brisbane all alone and unable to even say her name, the dockmaster and his wife adopt her, name her Nell and raise her as their own. On her 21st birthday, she's told the truth about her adoption and given a little suitcase with a few clothes and a lovely old book of fairy tales that had been in her possession when she arrived in Australia.The knowledge changes her very life, and she begins a search to find out about her past. Following slender clues, her quest leads her to the Cornish coast in England, to Blackhurst Manor, the Mountrachet family, and a dark web of secrets and lies and false hopes. As she learns more concerning the "Authoress," Eliza Makepeace, who wrote the beautiful fairy tales; the handsome artist Alexander Walker; the maidservant Mary, the overbearing, unkind Adeline and her daughter Rose, Nell realizes that her story is more tangled than she could have realized. She manages to piece together much of her past and comes close to solving the mystery of her identity, but it's left to her granddaughter, Cassandra, to discover the dark secret of the forgotten garden at Cliff Cottage on the estate and at long last put all the pieces together and solve the puzzle. Beautifully written (if a bit overlong), with an involving narrative, rich with interesting and almost Dickensian characters (Mansell and the Swindells most definitely), the reader gets sucked into the mystery almost immediately.The relationship between the cousins--the talented, determined and loyal Eliza Makepeace and the lovely but doomed Rose Mountrachet--is excellently portrayed. This is a book stuffed with characters and events, and if at times the shifting of the time periods was a bit confusing, the story clicks with an almost Gothic atmosphere in the Cornish setting, the characters are well drawn and the storyline intriguing. I found it an entertaining, at times comforting sort of read, much like the old fashioned sagas of Dorothy Eden or Susan Howatch.

THE RESERVOIR by John Milliken Thompson, 2011.

Based on a real murder case that occurred in Richmond, Virginia, in 1885, this novel quite ingeniously puts the reader right there, involving them in the events and the characters' lives from the very beginning of the narrative. On a chilly March morning in 1885, young Fannie Lillian Madison's body is found drowned in a reservoir near Hollywood Cemetery. It is soon revealed that the victim was also bruised on the head and pregnant. Investigation soon brings to light Lillie's somewhat checkered past, including her unsavory family life, and leads to the main suspect, Thomas Judson Cluverius, a young, ambitious lawyer from King William County. It was common knowledge Tommie was involved with Lillie, as well as with pretty Nola Bray. And furthermore, Tommie's older brother Willie, a quiet farmer, had been in a relationship with Lillie before Tommie. As clues are uncovered concerning that cold night's events, Tommie is charged with the murder, and the city is in the throes of excitement over the trial. But is Tommie guilty? Was Lillie's death a murder or was it suicide? Was someone else involved? Of what importance is the little watch key? And the torn letter? Tommie keeps changing his version of events, so much so that it's questioned by those around him as to just what is truth and what is not.Thompson, with straightforward storytelling, moves the narrative along, doing a credible job of presenting the known facts, as well as filling in gaps with creative imaginings, allowing the reader to draw his own conclusions. Using available documentation, including contemporary newspapers and court records,Thompson provides riveting courtroom scenes, with numerous witnesses and lawyers taking stage. His characters, like Aunt Jane Tunstall, Howard Madison, William Crump and Colonel Aylett, are all real people, and imaginatively brought to life in the course of the story. Set against the backdrop of rural, peaceful King William County and the prosperous city of Richmond, just twenty years after the Civil War, Thompson's story is an excellent rendering of a case that captured the public's imagination during those post-war days. Well done, as both an historical novel and a crime suspense story. It would make a for a good book discussion.

The Book is Always Better than the Movie: "The Help"

After some deliberation, I went to a matinee showing of the movie version of "The Help" on Labor Day with my wife and daughter. Having read Kathryn Stockett's book, I fully expected that the movie wouldn't be as involving or moving. However, it came pretty close.The casting was very good, perfect shooting locations, and the script was literate with some great dialogue and well done set pieces, some wonderful humor, and for the most part it stuck to the story and kept its heart intact.Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were well cast as the two main black characters, Aibilene and Minny. Emma Stone was competent as the third lead, Skeeter; Bryce Dallas Howard was fine if a little over-the-top as Hilly. I enjoyed seeing other actors in minor roles: Brian Kerwin as Skeeter's father, Sissy Spacek as Miz Walters, Leslie Jordan as the newspaper's editor, Mary Steenburgen as Skeeter's New York book editor, etc. My quibbles with the film, as with any book made into film, always concern why certain changes were made, and that's just my nature. I felt the story had been softened somewhat, just didn't have as much of an edge to it as the book; the huge sense of fear these women had of being discovered was only hinted at; another concerned the character change in Skeeter's mother, and another was the way the relationship between Skeeter and Stuart was handled. However, I only question these because I only recently read the novel, those who have not read it or read it ages ago may not have problems with these things. I would still recommend the film as an interesting depiction of the South on the cusp of far-reaching changes, with characters either struggling to resist those changes or to embrace them and grow. Definitely I will remember the hilarious chocolate pie incident in both the book and movie!