Some people stay all summer long on the idyllic island of Belle Isle, North Carolina. Some people come only for the weekends-and it's something they look forward to all week long. When Riley Griggs is waiting for her husband to arrive at the ferry one Friday afternoon, she is instead served with papers informing her that her island home is being foreclosed. To make matters worse, her husband is nowhere to be found. She turns to her island friends for help and support, but each of them has their own secrets and the clock is ticking as the mystery deepens. Cocktail parties and crab boil aside, Riley must find a way to investigate the secrets of Belle Island, the husband she might not really know, and the summer that could change everything.
Riley Griggs grew up going to Belle Island every summer. She loves the island and her family, but having to put up with them this summer will probably grate on her last nerve. Riley and her husband have decided to divorce and this weekend, the first weekend of summer, they are going to tell their twelve year old daughter Maggie. Maggie has become increasingly sullen, as if she knows what is going to happen. Riley is ticked when Wendell doesn't show up to take the last ferry of the day, feeling as if he has blown her off so she can deliver the bad news to Maggie on her own. Then Riley is the bad guy, not Wendell. But the next day, the sheriff shows up and informs Riley that Wendell is dead, his body has been found in the water.
Of course, immediate suspicion falls on Riley. What Riley didn't know was that Wendell had gone into bankruptcy. He was going to make Belle Island into some crazy tourist trap, taking away the small town feel that the island had. Riley had been against it, but behind her back Wendell was buying up land and making plans. Now her husband is dead, Riley is destitute, as Wendell had drained their bank accounts and her trust fund without her knowledge, and Maggie is doing everything she can to rebel.
Riley decides she has to figure out what happened to Wendell, before she loses her daughter and her piece of mind. The suspects keep cropping up when Riley finds out Wendell had swindled not only her money, but also her brothers and her mothers.
I have never read a Mary Kay Andrews book with this amount of intrigue and mystery. I really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed that Riley found someone who accepts her and Maggie as they are even with her dysfunctional family. I loved Riley's character, and Maggie reminds me so much of my twelve year old son with the attitude problems. This was a a great story and I am excited that I was given the opportunity to read it!
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