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Greg and Tess MacAvoy are one of four prominent Nantucket couples who count each other as best friends. As pillars of their close-knit community, the MacAvoys, Kapenashes, Drakes, and Wheelers are important to their friends and neighbors, and especially to each other. But just before the beginning of another idyllic summer, Greg and Tess are killed when their boat capsizes during an anniversary sail. As the warm weather approaches and the island mourns their loss, nothing can prepare the MacAvoy's closest friends for what will be revealed.
Once again, Hilderbrand masterfully weaves an intense tale of love and loyalty set against the backdrop of endless summer island life.
Set in Nantucket Island, this story of the “too-perfect” friendship of four fortyish couples takes an abrupt turn when one of the couples, Tess and Greg, capsize and drown on a solo sailing outing celebrating their twelfth anniversary. Strains and secrets are slowly revealed, as the author smoothly incorporates looks at their various pasts and how they came to be a close-knit group.
The long-time harmony of this group, including a police chief, a farmer, a wealthy real estate wheeler-dealer, and a high-school teacher, sometimes singer, who is way too good looking for his own good, seems a bit suspect. Throw in that two former lovers are married to others in the group. More insidious are the revelations of ongoing affairs or infatuations as the puzzling circumstances of the deaths are examined.
No doubt such deaths would be painful to any such group, but some of the reactions of the anchors of the group are excessively emotional, prolonged, and out-of-character. Despite these serious cracks in the group and the overreactions, the author has a mission of bringing it all to a safe landing.
The mystery of the sailing deaths keeps the book moving, as various relevant connections and motives are slowly and adeptly revealed. The author also shows deftness in her descriptions of Nantucket and the four or five group vacations that had been taken over the years. In the end, the author is unwilling to face the inevitable fallout from the entire scenario that she has constructed involving these flawed characters and their not quite so harmonious group.
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Product details
359 pages
Little Brown and Company -
English9780316043892
Reviews:
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
Greg and Tess MacAvoy are one of four prominent Nantucket couples who count each other as best friends. As pillars of their close-knit community, the MacAvoys, Kapenashes, Drakes, and Wheelers are important to their friends and neighbors, and especially to each other. But just before the beginning of another idyllic summer, Greg and Tess are killed when their boat capsizes during an anniversary sail. As the warm weather approaches and the island mourns their loss, nothing can prepare the MacAvoy's closest friends for what will be revealed.
Once again, Hilderbrand masterfully weaves an intense tale of love and loyalty set against the backdrop of endless summer island life.
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