Homecoming

The highly anticipated new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Clockmaker’s Daughter,a sweeping saga with a thrilling mystery at its heart tracing a shocking crime whose effects echo across continents and generations. Adelaide HillsChristmas Eve1959: At the end of a scorching hot daybeside a creek in the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansiona local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tumbeela becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia. Sixty years laterJess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty yearsshe now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydneywhere her beloved grandmotherStellawho raised Jess when her mother could nothas suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital. Stella has always been a vibrant and strong presence: decisiveencouragingyoung beyond her years. When Jess visits her in the hospital she is alarmed to find her grandmother frail and confused; it’s even more alarming to hear from Stella’s housekeeper that Stella had been distracted in the weeks before her accidentand that she fell on the steps to the attic – the one place Jess was forbidden from playing when she was small. At a loose end in Stella’s houseJess does some digging of her own. In Stella’s bedroomshe discovers a true crime bookchronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime – a crime that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a storya cold case might be the best distraction she can find… An epic novel that spans generationsHomecoming asks what we would do for those we loveand how we protect the lies we tell. It explores the power of motherhoodthe corrosive effects of tightly held secretsand the healing nature of truth. Above allit is a beguiling and immensely satisfying novel from one of the finest writers working today.