Homecoming

Published in 2023, Homecoming is Kate Morton’s seventh novel. Her first novel, The House at Riverton, was published in 2006 and became an immediate bestseller. Set in the Australian landscape, Morton’s home, her novels have become known for their compelling mysteries and unpredictable plot twists. However, the author’s works are also praised for their character-driven focus, for they frequently explore deep family relationships and complex dynamics, featuring plots that often revolve around dark secrets in the family’s past.

This study guide refers to the eBook edition of the novel, which was published in 2023 by Mariner Books.

Content Warning: The source material features depictions of child loss, death by suicide, gaslighting, and postpartum depression.

Plot Summary

Alternating between two different timelines, 1959 and 2018, Homecoming gradually reveals the true events behind the Turner Tragedy, an unsolved mystery in which Percy Summers finds Isabel Turner and her children dead after a picnic, with no discernable cause of death. In 1959, lacking the means to find any other evidence, the police and the local community of Tambilla settle on the theory that Isabel poisoned her children and herself. Over time and retelling, this story becomes the accepted truth, but the fate of Isabel’s baby, Thea, remains a mystery, for she was absent from the crime scene and was never found.

In 2018, Jess Turner returns to Australia from London, where she has lived for the past 10 years. She has come to visit her grandmother, Nora, who has been hospitalized after falling down the attic stairs. Because Jess is a journalist, her discovery of a particular book at Nora’s house sets her on an investigation into the 1959 Turner Tragedy. Through her research, she discovers that Nora’s sister-in-law, Isabel, is thought to have poisoned herself and her children, although no means or motive was ever discovered. The book she discovers, As If They Were Asleep, was written by Daniel Miller soon after the crime. It uses a creative nonfiction style to portray the inner thoughts of Isabel and others in order to explore the mystery in greater depth; however, Miller’s book does not come to any definitive conclusions. Morton employs the device of Miller’s book as an embedded narrative within Homecoming, using this story within a story to offer a firsthand account of the tragedy itself. The novel alternates between these two narrative strategies as Jess investigates the truth behind the tragedy.

The narrative shifts to Christmas Eve day in 1959. On that day, Percy Summers stopped at Halcyon, Thomas and Isabel Turner’s property, to water his horse. He discovered Isabel and her children at the water hole surrounded by remnants of a picnic, looking as if they were asleep. Upon realizing that the family was dead, he rode for the police, and Tambilla was plunged into a murder investigation, as well as a search for the missing baby, Thea. In the end, although the coroner came to no firm conclusions about the crime, the police and the local community accepted the theory that Isabel was responsible.

In 2018, it becomes clear that Jess’s grandmother, Nora, plays a pivotal role in the 1959 mystery. She was staying at Halcyon at the time of the tragedy. Although she had had difficulty getting pregnant in the past, Nora was seven months pregnant at the time. She had traveled to Halcyon to wait out the final months of her pregnancy and give birth surrounded by family. However, after the tragedy, Nora gave birth prematurely to Polly as a result of stress and grief.

In 2018, Nora dies before she can offer any clarity about the crime to Jess. However, through Daniel’s book and notes, Jess is able to push her investigation into avenues that haven’t yet been explored. In addition, she consults with experts to reevaluate the claims of poisoning, using current knowledge that wasn’t available in 1959.

After Nora’s death, Jess’s mother, Polly, returns to Sydney from Brisbane. Jess is angry and resentful of her mother, believing that Polly abandoned her with Nora when she was a child. Over the years, Nora has told both Polly and Jess that Polly is fragile and sensitive, thereby casting doubt upon her daughter’s ability to be a fit mother for Jess. In one of Nora’s most damning stories, she has described finding Polly standing over Jess’s crib with a pillow in her hands. Although Polly doesn’t remember this event, both she and Jess believe that it did indeed happen. However, Jess eventually finds evidence that Nora once told the same story about Isabel; this leads her to question the veracity of the stories that Nora told her about Polly over the years.

In an effort to reconnect with Jess, Polly works with her to solve the mystery, offering her own insight and memory. Daniel Miller’s niece, Nancy, offers them access to his interview notes and a recording of an interview between Daniel and Nora, with instructions that it was to be given specifically to Polly. The interview reveals the truth of one aspect of the mystery: the fate of Isabel’s baby, Thea. It is revealed that Nora’s own baby died soon after birth; Nora’s daughter, Polly, is actually Thea. Nora buried her own daughter at Halcyon, in the rose garden.

The final pieces of the mystery come together when Jess discovers that Isabel was having an affair with Percy Summers, and Thea was their child. After Percy’s son Marcus discovered their affair, Percy ended the relationship, and Isabel decided to return to England with her children. However, Marcus was so angry that he devised a plan to slip the deadly cyanotoxin of a pufferfish into Isabel’s food and make her sick. Percy’s wife, Meg, found out about Marcus’s plan before he could implement it and took the fish from Marcus, who told her about the affair. In an act of vengeance upon Isabel, Meg ground the pufferfish into her fish paste and gave it to Isabel, assuming that no one else would eat it.

At the end of the novel, with their new understanding of Nora’s deceptions over the years, Jess and Polly begin to reconnect with each other and build a new relationship. They also travel to Tambilla to visit Halcyon and to connect with their Summers relatives for the first time.