The Distant Hours by Kate Morton author of the bestselling The House of Riverton is a heart-breaking story of love and loss with a devastating secret at its heart. Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close but when a long lost letter arrives with the return address of Milderhurst Castle Kent printed on its envelope Edie begins to suspect that her mothers emotional distance masks an old secret. Evacuated from London as a thirteen year old girl Edies mother is chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe and taken to live at Millderhurst Castle with the Blythe family. Fifty years later Edie too is drawn to Milderhurst and the eccentric Sisters Blythe. Old ladies now the three still live together the twins nursing Juniper whose abandonment by her fiance in 1941 plunged her into madness. Inside the decaying castle Edie begins to unravel her mothers past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst Castle and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time for someone to find it . . .