"Kirkus Reviews" Two sets of sisters reunite tensely on a Mediterranean island to honor their dead patriarch. Constance arrives at her family's dilapidated house in Santerre brandishing her new boyfriend Jim, hoping that his presence will improve her rank in the household. She's always watched her older sister Isabelle garner all the compliments and is surprised when the intriguing next-door neighbor takes a liking to her instead. Isabelle is on the prowl, wounded from publicly losing her famous and charismatic husband to a younger fling. She butts heads with her English stepsister Lucy, another beautiful, strong-willed woman who grew up longing to usurp Isabelle for the role of her father's favorite daughter. Even as an adult, she refuses to believe he could ever have wronged them. Lucy's younger sister, the sensitive Jane, also smarting from losing her lover, knows better. The man in the middle of all this is the late Ross Wright, a schemer who went down in his heavily mortgaged plane, leaving his family literally to pay the price for his poor investments. His third wife, Odette, certainly feels the burden. Forced to leave their New York apartment and move back to her native France, she too finds herself on the island, privy to the familial and culture clashes. Newcomer McAndrew realistically relays sibling love and tension as the sisters bicker with and comfort one another in the days leading up to their father's memorial service. The narrative takes some crazy turns that might seem preposterous in any other story, but McAndrew's skill is such that you buy every minute of the partner swapping, surprise appearances, quirky locals, and discovered treasure that pop up on the way to epiphanies about dear old dad, relationships, and life in general. A smooth, engrossing debut.
