Homecoming, by Kate Morton

A small town in the Adelaide Hills in December 1959 is the scene of the mysterious deaths of Isabel Turner and her children. Eventually ruled a murder-suicide, the event has a long term impact on the local community. In London in 2018, journalist Jess Turner-Bridges has lost her job and her partner and is struggling to hang on to her house. Called home to Sydney after her beloved grandmother suffers a fall, Jess starts to uncover family secrets and a link to the events of 1959. Blending real live crimes with the fictional tale provides the author endless opportunities to demonstrate her extensive research, without adding anything meaningful to the the novel. Told in omniscient flashbacks from multiple points of view, this predictable story takes more than 600 pages to wind to a halt. Competent editing could have reduced it by a third without losing anything significant or interesting. Unfortunately the stilted dialogue and unlikely actions of several characters would still have left a flabby and unsatisfying tale.