Family Reunion - Hardcover

Smith, Carol

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585470767 ISBN 13: 9781585470761

Publisher: Center Point Pub, 2001

Synopsis

Odile Annesley, the once-beloved matriarch of the Annesley clan, has been living in a self-imposed exile for 40 years following a family tragedy. But with her 80th birthday approaching, she decides it's time to contact her family and give them details about her will. Her grandchildren think this is the perfect opportunity to get to know each other better and plan a family reunion in France to celebrate Grandmere's birthday with her. As they grow closer while preparing for the big reunion, terrible accidents begin happening throughout the extended family. And when they finally arrive at Grandmere's, they discover a house set to welcome them...and an unmarked grave. In their search to find the murderer, all of their lives are put in jeopardy-and no one can predict the family secrets that will be revealed.

About this title

About the Author

Carol Smith, formerly a leading London literary agent, now concentrates full-time on her writing career.

From Publishers Weekly

Set in present-day London and Provence, this suspense novel by the popular author of The Neighbors is part juicy family melodrama, part stirring suspense story. On the eve of her 80th birthday, reclusive Annesley family matriarch Odile writes to each member of the Annesley clan from her sprawling farmhouse in Provence, communicating details of her will. In response, Odile's five granddaughters plan to travel in convoy to the French homestead for a surprise visit to their estranged grandmother. The trip is deferred until the midpoint of the novel, as the granddaughters are reacquainted with each other. Clemency, the eldest, is comfortably married with four children and lives outside London; Elodie is a single and raunchy dress designer living in Paris. Madeleine, residing alone in London, is a Norwegian "ice queen"; Isabelle, at the other end of the spectrum, is a plumpish student at Oxford. Finally, Cherie is a single mother, poor and resentful of the Annesley entitlement, from which she feels excluded. This motley crew arrives in Provence to find the farmhouse quite desolate and the garden disturbed by a freshly dug grave. The terror heightens as two more Annesleys are murdered and the group uncovers bloody secrets buried in the family's past. Though the novel's denouement fails to convince, its plotting is otherwise solid, its characters rounded and its pacing sprightly. As with Smith's previous romantic suspense novels, it should find eager readers.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Center Point Pub
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1585470767
• ISBN 13: 9781585470761
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352