A Clear Blue Sky - Softcover

Barbara Whitnell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340618086 ISBN 13: 9780340618080

Publisher: Coronet Books, 1996

Synopsis

Attempting to save her failing marriage and recapture her childhood happiness, Kate Sheridan decides that her family should rent a house in Cornwall, not realizing that a woman with a terrifying secret is on her way to the house.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Her favorite setting?Cornwall?and her familiar domestic concerns?watersheds of life and generations?dress this latest family drama from Whitnell (The View from the Summerhouse). Two sisters and their families vacation at what initially seems a perfect Cornish getaway cottage. Organization-freak Kate Sheridan and her more laid-back sister, Lynn Bryant, each face a life-changing decision. Kate, a relationship counselor, must decide whether her husband Oliver's affair will wreck their marriage; Lynn may lose her Leo if she decides not to support his move to a job he desperately wants. Their daughters, on the brink of young womanhood, find painful new maturity, and their much younger sons, particularly Lynn and Leo's bookish James, encounter more dangerous experiences. For this seemingly idyllic house hides a murderous past. From neighbors they learn of events years earlier, which mesh with the counterpointing story of elderly Ruth Kernow, who has returned to town after years in psychiatric care. Ruth does find the enlightenment she seeks, but it pushes her over the edge once more. Whitnell evokes the spell of the gorgeous Cornish countryside, and her characters have their convincing moments. But her mixture of domestic melodrama and suspense is ultimately awkward, rendering the novel neither as thrilling as it intends to be nor as moving as some of Whitnell's previous efforts.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Readers who appreciate a leisurely story set in the charming English countryside will gladly turn the pages of Whitnell's (Charmed Circle, LJ 12/93) latest. Kate had a happy and contented childhood. Now a young woman, her nurse's training is interrupted when she meets Oliver Sheridan. Pleased that a man as attractive as Oliver has asked her to marry, she agrees, anticipating a pleasant future. However, their marriage soon sags under the daily pressures of earning a living and raising children. Kate feels Oliver growing more distant and suspects him of having a romantic fling. A holiday trip involving other members of the family offers a chance at reconciliation, but new family problems and old mysteries threaten to interfere. All in all, this novel is a worthwhile fiction purchase for most public libraries.
Margaret Hanes, Sterling Heights P.L., Mich.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Coronet Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0340618086
• ISBN 13: 9780340618080
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384