Page 21 - Panama City Living May/June 2019

BOOK REVIEW
THE CLOCKMAKER’S DAUGHTER
BY KATE MORTON
Reviewed by Lara Herter
Lara graduated from Florida State University with a master of science degree in corporate and public communication. She is the community and education program developer at Corporate College, a division of Gulf Coast State College. In addition to this position, Lara teaches in the communications department at Florida State University. She is a board member of the Bay Education Foundation.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FENDER
“The Clockmaker’s Daughter” (2018) by Kate Morton braids together stories of love, loss, and a mysterious murder centered around Birchwood Manor, an imposing mansion situated on the banks of London’s Upper Thames. The building’s ghostly inhabitant and the present-day residents and visitors share their experiences with the reader, their narratives spanning from 1862 London to the present day.
Within the first few pages, readers are introduced to Elodie, an archivist, and Birdie Bell, the ghost of a young woman who lived at Birchwood Manor in the mid-19th century. Birdie is melancholy, secretive, and mournful; her voice is the voice of the mansion. “My real name, no one remembers. The truth about that summer, no one else knows.” I was immediately intrigued when Birdie began to reveal her life’s story and was drawn in by Morton’s skillful imagery and symbolism in this historical fiction.
Throughout the book, Birdie slowly shares pieces of her journey, a street-hustling child developing into a young woman who becomes the muse and love of the artist Edward Radcliffe, one of the main characters. Birdie’s expectation of new love ends in tragedy. She shares her story for the benefit of those who have come to join her at the mansion overlooking the Upper Thames.
The complexity of several other characters, although diverse and spanning more than a century, are thoughtfully pieced together like broken bits of glass in a mosaic. Each piece is dependent on the other to create a meaningful interpretation of life—the big picture.
Morton writes of Radcliffe that he “could transport people, that they were no longer simply spectators of his works but participants, co-conspirators in the realization of the world that he sought to create.” This is precisely what Morton accomplishes in her novel: her writing pulls readers into each page, anxious to find out the fate of each character and how they all come together. The subtle details from each narrative become significant as Morton brings all the characters back to Birchwood Manor in a stunning conclusion.
The book explores how choices made in the past touch lives in the present. The theme of time is embedded throughout the story with several literal and figurative images. Birdie, forever trapped, realizes, “I am this house,” as she recounts the events at Birchwood Manor.
By the time I finished the book, I felt all of us in our own way are vessels, telling the stories of those who have come before us. Birdie said it best: “All past is present.”
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