A Place in the Country

April 9, 2012
Bestseller Adler (From Barcelona with Love) smoothly blends suspense and romance in this tale of betrayal and murder. Caroline Evans, in the wake of her divorce from her unfaithful, duplicitous husband, James, has left Singapore and settled with her 15-year-old daughter, Issy, in the Cotswolds village of Upper Amberley, where she soon gains the sympathy of the locals. While coping with the teenage angst of Issy, who enrolls at a nearby prep school, Caroline finds satisfaction working as a chef in a small Upper Amberley restaurant. She even considers getting involved with a younger man, until James suddenly appears in the village. James’s subsequent disappearance and a murder in Singapore pose a threat to Caroline’s newfound stability. Adler’s admirable heroine’s ability to remake her life and rebuild her relationship with her daughter will resonate with many readers. Agent: Anne Sibbald, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

May 15, 2012
Caroline Evans had been living the good life in Singapore with her handsome and wealthy husband, James, and teenage daughter, Issy, but when faced with James' cheating ways, she retreats home to England with a surly Issy in tow. She struggles to make ends meet until the day she walks into the Star & Plough and earns the sympathy and friendship of the pub's owner, Maggie Gonzalez. Gradually Caroline begins piecing her life back together, which includes having a romance with a local carpenter, the much younger Jim, who turns out to be of the manor born. Just as she's approaching happiness, word comes that James has committed suicide or been murderedsomething to do with a Ponzi schemeand fathered an illegitimate child. Where Old Caroline may have crumpled under these revelations, New Caroline handles them with grace and forgiveness. Though best-selling Adler (From Barcelona with Love, 2011) is known for featuring picturesque locales in her novels, this current work, largely set in the English countryside, has an earthier feel, and it's less about escaping, and more about finding home.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)