by Delia Ephron
First published 2016
Michael and Lizzie pack their bags for Sicily, joining their friends Finn, Taylor, and ten-year-old Snow for what should be a perfect Mediterranean getaway. But Taylor suspects the trip masks deeper motives. She believes Lizzie and Finn orchestrated the whole arrangement to spend time together away from their spouses. As the group settles into sun-soaked Siracusa on the Ionian coast, each character harbors secrets that slowly surface through shifting perspectives. Snow, wise beyond her years, watches the adults navigate their tangled relationships and becomes an unwitting catalyst in the unfolding drama. Old betrayals emerge alongside new deceptions as the vacation becomes a pressure cooker of marital tensions. The novel peels back layers of each marriage, revealing how couples conspire and betray in equal measure. What begins as a leisurely Italian escape accelerates into psychological suspense, building toward a climactic revelation that reshapes everything the characters thought they knew about their relationships.
Genres: fiction, drama, literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: deception, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Italy, Sicily, Siracusa
304 pages · Hardcover · Blue Rider Press