From Library Journal
The sudden death of Philip Stavely drastically changes the lives of his surviving family members. His widow, Ellie, finds it difficult to accept her husband's shooting as an accident and suspects that he may have committed suicide. It was a common interest in the acting profession that brought them together, but marriage and children pushed them apart. Philip pursued his career while Ellie took on the role of wife and mother. After his death, she explores the reasons for this estrangement. The tragic event affects each family member differently: Harriet, the youngest, denies her father's death; Luke, approaching manhood, finds inadequacy in his relationship with his father; and Cassandra, the oldest and her father's favorite, has her own troubling memories. The novel moves between the past, with recollections of life with father, and the present as each tries to cope without him. Carole Boyd reads in a precise, even-paced style in keeping with the often reflective moods of the characters. Recommended for general fiction collections.ACatherine Swenson, Norwich Univ. Lib., Northfield, VT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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From the Inside Flap
On a stark and cold January day, Philip Stavely, successful actor, screenwriter and family man, is killed during a shooting party, leaving behind his wife, Ellie, and three children aged between nine and twenty-one. Although the inquest brings in a verdict of accidental death, Ellie is convinced it was suicide and feels driven to discover the cause. Their once happy marriage had deteriorated in recent years for reasons she was unable to fathom and, although she had begun in recent years to suspect an affair, only their eldest daughter, Cassandra, had stumbled on the truth.
Still living in the lovely old country house where they had made their home, Ellie struggles to come to terms with the tragedy and, almost imperceptibly, finds herself becoming involved with her husband's elder brother, a gentle man who for years had secretly loved her. As she and the children try to rebuild their lives in their own varying ways, so individual traumas came to a head, and it is not until Ellie learns the truth about Philip that she is able to lay the ghosts of the past to rest, and decide on a new and happier future.
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