Rachel Hore Books in Order

Kate Hutchinson leaves a cramped London terrace for the promise of space and peace in the Suffolk countryside, moving her young family in with her mother-in-law while they hunt for a home. One evening she discovers an old house that seems to answer every dream yet belongs to frail, secretive Agnes. As the two women grow close, Kate begins to question what the perfect life really looks like.

Reeling from her mother’s death and a broken relationship, London art historian Mel Pentreath rents a cottage in wild Lamorna Cove in Cornwall. Helping landlord Patrick restore the overgrown gardens at Merryn Hall, she slowly begins to heal. When they uncover forgotten Edwardian paintings in the attic, an intense tale of ambition and forbidden love emerges that echoes in Mel’s own choices.

When her estranged father falls ill, classical musician Fran Morrison returns to take over his tiny stained-glass shop in Westminster. A commission to restore a shattered angel window draws Fran and glazier Zac into a Victorian love story hidden in glass and old papers. As the past comes into focus, Fran confronts long-buried questions about her mother, her father and the life she wants.

Auctioneer Jude Gower escapes to rural Norfolk to value the scientific papers of eighteenth-century astronomer Anthony Wickham. At Starbrough Hall and its crumbling folly, old family stories and Wickham’s journals stir memories of a childhood nightmare Jude shares with her young niece. As she delves into the fate of Wickham’s adopted daughter Esther, Jude uncovers secrets that bind past and present and challenge how she faces her own grief.

After her father’s death in 2011, photographer Lucy Cardwell travels to his Cornish childhood home to investigate the mysterious great-uncle he never mentioned. There she meets elderly Beatrice Ashton, whose memories reach back to sunlit prewar summers at Carlyon Manor and a first love rescued from the sea. As Beatrice’s story moves through the Blitz and secret work in Occupied France, Lucy learns how one family was reshaped by courage and betrayal.

Young editor Emily Gordon is thrilled to work on the biography of celebrated novelist Hugh Morton until anonymous packages hint that his life story has been carefully edited. In 1948, runaway Isabel Barber steps into London publishing and into Morton’s orbit, where admiration turns into a dangerous affair. As Emily pieces together what Isabel endured, she must decide how much truth the present is ready to hear.

In 1937, gifted pianist Kitty Travers moves to Paris to study just as war approaches and the city darkens. Twenty-five years later, violinist Fay Knox visits on tour and is haunted by memories she cannot explain. Following a handful of clues, Fay uncovers her mother’s hidden wartime story and the truth about where she belongs.

Number 11 Bellevue Gardens, a shabby house off a quiet London square, is Leonie’s refuge and the shelter she offers to others in need. Rosa arrives from Poland searching for her missing brother, Stef is fleeing a suffocating relationship and Rick hides away to draw and dream. When the house itself comes under threat, all four must confront their pasts and decide what home really means.

On holiday near Naples, Briony Wood stumbles on a ruined villa where her grandfather served during the war and discovers a bundle of hidden love letters. The correspondence between Englishwoman Sarah Bailey and German soldier Paul Hartmann leads her back to prewar Norfolk. As Briony uncovers what happened under Vesuvius, old wounds in her own family begin to reopen.

In wartime London, young nurse Alice Copeman is forced to surrender her newborn daughter to avoid scandal. The baby is secretly adopted by Edith and Philip Burns, who raise Irene without telling her the full truth. As the years pass, mother and child follow separate paths until long-buried secrets demand to be faced.

Restless secretary Minnie Gray longs to do something that matters. Recruited to work undercover for the British authorities, she is sent to infiltrate the Communist movement in late 1920s London. Living a double life soon threatens her safety, her relationships and any hope of an ordinary future.

When a bomb destroys her London home and her husband is reported missing in action, Maddie flees with her two young daughters to his old family house in Norfolk. At Knyghton she clings to hope he is alive yet senses he hid troubling secrets there. As she probes a long-ago summer, past betrayals collide with the danger of war.

In the 1960s, student Belle abandons her course to follow charismatic musician Gray Robinson to Silverwood, an artists’ community on the Cornish coast that feels strangely familiar. A photograph of herself as a baby taken on a nearby beach hints at a hidden link to the place. As Belle learns about wartime nurse Imogen Lockhart who lived at Silverwood during World War Two, she uncovers family secrets and begins to decide who she wants to be.