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Title details for Last Lessons of Summer by Margaret Maron - Available

Last Lessons of Summer

by Margaret Maron
Kate Forbes
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available
Margaret Maron is The New York Times best-selling author of the acclaimed Deborah Knott series of southern mysteries, including the novels Uncommon Clay and Slow Dollar. She has won the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, Macavity, and American Mystery Awards. In a rare departure from the Knott series, Maron ratchets up the suspense in the dark and captivating stand-alone mystery, Last Lessons of Summer. Amy Stedman is the young heiress of a prosperous children's book publishing company. She arrives in North Carolina from New York City to clear the family house of her grandmother's belongings and hopefully find clues to her murder-which remains unsolved. While cleaning and rummaging through the woman's dusty possessions, Amy reflects on her own unfulfilling life. Married to a vain man who doesn't love her so much as value her family's lucrative legacy, Amy realizes that their relationship strangely echoes her parents' unfortunate marriage. Soon after giving birth to her, Amy's mother Maxine committed suicide under suspicious circumstances. Amy's father, a brash businessman and unapologetic opportunist, fostered deceit and deeply seated feelings of doubt in the family. Within the walls of this old house, dark recollections of unnatural death are beginning to permeate the air-adding a premonition of menace to Amy's increasingly troubled thoughts. Was Maxine's death really a suicide? And if it wasn't, what terrible secrets may be lying in wait for Amy?

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 22, 2003

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781449885564
      • File size: 272965 KB
      • Duration: 09:28:40

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from July 7, 2003
      HKnown best for her Deborah Knott novels (Slow Dollar, etc.) and her Sigrid Harald series (Fugitive Colors, etc.), Edgar-winner Maron has produced a standalone gem, set in North Carolina's Piedmont country, that focuses on a large matriarchal family. Amy Steadman, a toy company executive in New York City, returns to her Southern roots one steamy August after inheriting a fortune from her murdered maternal grandmother, Frances Barbour. Aided by Beth, her pouty younger half-sister, Amy sorts through furniture, books and other personal items in Grandma Frances's summer house, where Amy's mother, Maxie, committed suicide when Amy was three. Amy is determined to find out what was really behind her mother's death—and her grandmother's, too. Amy's many kinfolk, who pass in and out of the house, seem as kind and gentle as can be, but one of them is decidedly dangerous. Cousin Curt is poisoned with jimson weed seeds cooked into a jar of preserves, and another tainted jar turns up in Amy's refrigerator. Maron has a faultless ear for Southern speech, dotting her dialogue with regionalisms like "I might could have." A feast of clues and red herrings, the book builds to a climax that hits like a hot bullet blast. With oodles of characters to keep straight, readers will find the family tree at the start an essential guide. (Aug. 26)FYI:Maron is a past president of Sisters in Crime and a former board member of the Mystery Writers of America.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      If this stand-alone novel from the author of the Deborah Knott mystery series is a fair indication of Maron's skill, readers may want to go straight through the whole canon. In this title, Amy Steadman arrives in North Carolina to clean out the house she has inherited from her recently murdered grandmother and surprises some of her cousins busy cleaning it out for themselves. From here on, nothing is as it seems, and though time and again listeners may think they know where Maron is going, time and again they will be wrong. The whole enterprise is delightful, most definitely including Kate Forbes's deft reading. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 1, 2003
      Known best for her Deborah Knott novels (Slow Dollar, etc.) and her Sigrid Harald series (Fugitive Colors, etc.), Edgar-winner Maron has produced a standalone gem, set in North Carolina's Piedmont country, that focuses on a large matriarchal family. Amy Steadman, a toy company executive in New York City, returns to her Southern roots one steamy August after inheriting a fortune from her murdered maternal grandmother, Frances Barbour. Aided by Beth, her pouty younger half-sister, Amy sorts through furniture, books and other personal items in Grandma Frances's summer house, where Amy's mother, Maxie, committed suicide when Amy was three. Amy is determined to find out what was really behind her mother's death-and her grandmother's, too. Amy's many kinfolk, who pass in and out of the house, seem as kind and gentle as can be, but one of them is decidedly dangerous. Cousin Curt is poisoned with jimson weed seeds cooked into a jar of preserves, and another tainted jar turns up in Amy's refrigerator. Maron has a faultless ear for Southern speech, dotting her dialogue with regionalisms like "I might could have." A feast of clues and red herrings, the book builds to a climax that hits like a hot bullet blast. With oodles of characters to keep straight, readers will find the family tree at the start an essential guide. (Aug. 26) FYI: Maron is a past president of Sisters in Crime and a former board member of the Mystery Writers of America.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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