Indian Summer

May 15, 2017
British writer Willett (Postcards from the Past, 2015) introduces Sir Mungo Kreslake as he retires from his illustrious acting career and relocates at his family's estate in the Devon countryside. His brother, Archie, and his wife live just down the lane, as do his elderly cousins, Philip and Billy. There are even properties available for long-term rental, which is where Emma and her two young children wait out her husband's deployment to Afghanistan and where James has come to work on his next novel. It's also where the ghosts of the past linger amid the orchard and hedgerows and where people from Mungo's dramatically different London milieu come to retreat from their own problems. Mungo's longtime friend, Kit, needs such an escape now as she considers a surprising proposition from Jake, the one-who-got-away many years ago. Into this bucolic, tight-knit little community, the ever-engaging Willett drops unsettling and potentially divisive elementsadultery, bankruptcy, abuse, and even a long-concealed murdercleverly designed to keep readers on their toes, even as they're lulled by the comfort of a cozy read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)