by David Storey
First published 2007
Rick Audlin writes memos to himself, documenting the strange turn his life has taken. The seventeen-year-old from Beverly Hills now lives in a crumbling Victorian house in Hampstead with Gerry, his half-brother who makes films and is thirty-five years older. When Gerry travels for business, he sends Rick to stay with James, another half-brother Rick barely knows. James lives outside a small village and writes crime novels that never get published. Clare meets Rick at the train station. She is James's wife, and she flirts with Rick from the moment they meet. The attraction between them grows quickly into something Rick knows is wrong but cannot resist. As their affair deepens, Rick begins to notice things that do not add up. Conversations stop when he enters rooms. James watches him with suspicious eyes. Clare herself seems to be hiding something important. Rick realizes his family has been keeping secrets from him, secrets that could destroy them all. He must decide whether to keep skating on the thin ice of lies or break through to the truth beneath.
Genres: romance, mystery, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Beverly Hills, Hampstead, Small Village
Period: 20th-century
Unknown Binding