Kate Morton is something like a guilty pleasure for me. Her stories are of grand homes with dark mysteries, and a family secret revealed in the last pages to keep up the suspense. I adored House at Riverton. I kind of liked Forgotten Garden. But Distant Hours lost its steam for me. 
 It starts out well enough. A woman receives a letter that was intended to be delivered fifty years ago. The letter was from an old friend, Juniper, whose house she stayed at as an evacuee during World War II. Not house, per se, but castle, with her twin older sisters and famous author Dad, Raymond Blythe. The letter recipient's daughter, Edie, ends up being the one to go on the adventure. 
 The letter was an intriguing idea, but it was hardly a plot point. It brought Edie the world of Milderhurst Castle, as her mom never mention her time there, and was the driving force to bringing the castle into the story. But for something so important to the plot, it ended up being... unimportant. 
 The Sisters Blythe, as the castle's residents are soon called, are three elderly women living in the dilapidated castle. And their family has its fair share of horror stories; suicides and freak accidents and tales of hauntings in their home. While I was waiting for a grand adventure, for the big mystery to unfold, nothing really happened. Edie traveled to Milderhurst to visit the castle, and then she did some research on the castle; we have flashback scenes of the sisters' life during the war (the most interesting part of the tale, if you ask me), and witness some day-to-day drama in the castle. But nothing really shocked me, even when secrets were revealed, and I felt more relief than shock when the mystery was resolved. 
 This is probably because I felt like I read it before. It has similar elements to Morton's other novels, which probably caused my lack of surprise. Overall, I was left feeling underwhelmed.