Summer's Lease [Hardcover]

John Mortimer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 22, 1988

The author of Paradise Postponed brings his many fans a magical combination of social comedy, social commentary, and intriguing mystery when Molly Pargeter and her family rent a villa in Tuscany for the summer. As Molly becomes obsessed with the owners' lives, strange events occur.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The advertisement that Molly Pargenter answered made the Tuscany villa to let sound like the ideal placesuspiciously too idealfor her family to spend its summer vacation. Arriving in Italy with her husband, three daughters, and father, she finds an unusual assortment of locals and English expatriates for neighbors, as well as detailed notes on the proper use of the house left by her absentee landlord, one S. Kettering. Molly's obsession with learning as much as possible about the Kettering household leads her to some ominous conclusions. Mortimer (author of Rumpole of the Bailey and a writer for the television series Brideshead Revisted ) has blended elements of social satire and mystery into an entertaining story whose atmosphere of mounting tension culminates in a disturbing climax. Lonnie Beene, West Texas State Univ. Lib., Canyon
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

John Mortimer is a playwright, novelist, and former practicing barrister who has written many film scripts as well as stage, radio, and television plays, the Rumpole plays, for which he received the British Academy Writer of the Year Award, and the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. He is the author of twelve collections of Rumpole stories and three acclaimed volumes of autobiography.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (July 22, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670819840
• ISBN-13: 978-0670819843
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,010,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mortimer's Italy...., June 4, 2000

By 

Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Summer's Lease (Paperback)

John Mortimer is an extremely literate and witty writer of books, screen plays, and other material, including the Rumpole series. This book is a bit different from his other books, including Dunster. "Summer Lease" is his best book as far as I am concerned. The protagonist is a woman named Molly Pargeter. One might not beleive the creater of Mrs. Rumpole (She Who Must Be Obeyed)could manage an authentic female protagonist, but he does.

Molly is an English woman married to a successful English man, successful enough to afford a villa in Tuscany for the summer--a summer's lease. Molly's semi-absent husband may or may not be faithful but they share an "unfriendly matrimonial bed." Her mostly grown children have their own lives, and her father living down the road has his own interests which don't include Molly.

Left with time on her hands, Molly begins to wonder about her absent landlord. What is he up to? By doing a bit of 'detecting' she discovers the answer. At the end of the summer's lease, she has also acquired personal insight into her own life and issues. I especially enjoyed the varous scenarios Mortimer depicts as Molly moves around Tuscany, tracking the landlord, or attending to her own business -- viewing paintings in museums, attending the horse races, walking along the dusty roads, etc. This book is a good "read."

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ALMOST LIKE A TRIP TO CHIANTISHIRE!, November 7, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Summer's Lease (Paperback)

I read this book because I saw the Masterpiece Theatre production on TV in the early nineties and fell in love with the characters and the story. This is the type of detective mystery novel where one can truly relate to the detective as she is an average person with a highly developed sense of curiosity. While I shared Molly's intense curiosity about her absent landlord and her outrage at the so called "water racket", I would not have gone as far as she did to satisfy that curiosity. Molly is rather reckless (if not stupid) towards the end and doesn't realize the consequences of her actions until too late - and even then chalks it up to coincidence. All in all the book is a quick and delightful read that will have you longing to travel to those Tuscan hills. I wish Masterpiece Theatre would rerun the film or make it available on video. You've got to see the film. The cast was so well chosen and the locations are beautiful, especially the terrace on La Felicita.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thinking person's summer book, June 12, 2003

By 

Irene Aiello "Reading mom" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Summer's Lease (Paperback)

The book is set in Tuscauny, where an English family is renting a home. Odd things happen, water disappears, and then someone dies. The mother, Molly Partiger, becomes obsesses with getting to the heart of these mysteries, and with meeting her mysterious landlord. It is a particular pleasure to see Mortimer's love of Shakespeare come through in Molly's Falstaff of a father, and the Hamlet-like play-within-a-play which gives Molly the final clue to the murder. Interwoven with the plot is an homage to Piero della Francesca (although it has been written that Mortimer gets everything wrong about Piero's Flagellation). The book ends with typical Mortimer poigniancy. Summer's Lease is light in the way that a Tom Stoppard play is light -- an intelligent guilty pleasure.