Wendy Francis (Best
Behavior) delivers a smart, probing drama that skillfully unravels the
complex emotional lives of an ensemble cast in Summertime
Guests, a novel set one weekend in June at a posh hotel on the North
Shore of Boston.
Legendary elegance is the hallmark
of The Seafarer, a famous, historic hotel. After a major renovation, the landmark
destination reopens under the management of workaholic, 39-year-old Parisian,
Jean-Paul, who has a wife and new baby he is woefully neglecting. There are 250
rooms at The Seafarer. However, Francis narrows her focus on only a handful of
guests: Riley and Tom, a young, Midwestern couple planning a wedding at the
establishment are challenged by the overbearing expectations of the
mother-of-the-groom. Widowed Rhode Island journalist Claire O’Dell, age 61, checks
into the hotel to take a breather. Claire wrote a provocative article about a
local politician with mob ties, and her newspaper suggests she take some time
off. Claire uses the opportunity to reconnect with an old flame who lives near
Boston. And then there is a 30something couple: Gwen, a teaching assistant, who
treats her beau, Jason, an adjunct professor, to a weekend birthday get-away in
the hope of healing their fraught relationship. Emotional, personal
complications abound and deepen as the lives of these strangers are affected
when a woman plunges to her death from a hotel balcony.
The subsequent investigation into the mysterious sudden death makes for a reflective,
deeply engaging and suspenseful story with many threads sure to ensnare the attention of rapt readers.
Summertime
Guests: A Novel by
Wendy Francis
Graydon House, $16.99 paperback, 9781525895982,
320 pages
Publication Date: March 9, 2021
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NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (April 9, 2021), link HERE