Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This wobbly psychological suspense novel from Bishop (The Girls of Summer) breaks little new ground in its exploration of class tensions on the Cote d'Azur. Privileged 25-year-old Nina has built a satisfying life for herself after surviving a traumatic childhood under the care of her self-absorbed mother and manipulative older siblings. Her fragile peace is threatened, however, when a true crime documentary seeks to reopen the case that catapulted Nina into the headlines as the youngest person ever to testify in a French murder trial: when she was five, her troubled sister, Tamara, was found floating in the family pool during their mother's lavish birthday party. Nina's testimony led to the conviction of the family's babysitter, Josie Jackson, for Tamara's murder, but now Josie has been released from prison, and the public has begun to relitigate her guilt. Josie returns to the Cote d'Azur with hopes of putting the past behind her, but for Nina, her reemergence drags the memory of that fateful day screaming into the present. Bishop toggles between the frenzy around Tamara's death and the present day, spreading narration duties across multiple characters who never really come to life, with Nina's heartless and ultrawealthy family in particular verging on cliché. Despite an intriguing setup, this fails to ignite. (Aug.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In her follow-up to The Girls of Summer, Bishop takes readers to a villa on the Côte d'Azur, full of secrets and lies that have plagued the Drayton family for 20 years. Teenaged Tamara Drayton was drowned in the villa's pool in 2004. Her killer, according to six-year-old eyewitness Nina, was babysitter Josie Jackson. Based on Nina's testimony, Josie was convicted in the French courts and spent 10 years imprisoned for the crime. In 2024, the case is brought back into the public eye by a true-crime documentary that questions the findings of the initial investigation. Nina, now an adult, is unsure of her own childhood memories and fears that her testimony may have sent the wrong person to prison. When the Drayton family decides to return to the South of France, Nina sees it as an opportunity to revisit the past and prove to herself what really happened to her sister. VERDICT Bishop builds tension in two narrative timeframes: the past, with the murder of Tamara, and the present, as Nina's probing causes new problems for all involved. For fans of Lucinda Berry and Jeneva Rose.--Jane Jorgenson
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