View enlarged image

Dubray Review

This is an addictive and superbly written novel that delves into the feted and privileged people of New England. As World War Two comes to an end, Nick’s husband is due home from the war, while Helena is planning a newly-wedded life in Hollywood. Over the course of twenty years, throughout repeated visits to their summer getaway of Tiger House on Martha’s Vineyard, we witness the hidden jealousy, bitterness and violence that mark the lives of the east-coast elite. Told by five distinct narrators, the unravelling of their individual stories is mapped out in exquisite detail. When a brutal murder shatters the façade of peace, it becomes impossible for everyone to maintain control. Life never turns out quite as planned or, as Nick says: you won’t always be kissing the right person. Compulsive and sensuous, this is the book of the summer.

- Martin Shannon, Rathmines

Description

The epitome of East Coast glamour, Tiger House is where the beautiful and the damned have always come to play in summer, scene of martinis and moonlit conspiracies, and newly inherited by the sleek, beguiling Nick. The Second World War is just ending, Nick's cousin Helena has left her in search of married bliss in Hollywood, and Nick's husband is coming home. Everything is about to change. Their children will surprise them. A decade later, on the cusp of adolescence, Nick's daughter and Helena's son make a sinister discovery that plunges the island's bright heat into private shadow. Summer seemed to arrive at that moment, with its mysterious mixture of salt, cold flesh and fuel. Magnificently told by each of the five characters in turn, "Tigers in Red Weather" is a simmering novel of passion, betrayal and secret violence beneath a polished and fragile facade.

Reviews

"With palpable tension and spot-on sensual detail, Liza Klaussmann shows us a family in the exacting wake of the Second World War. Marvelously plotted and deliciously sophisticated, this is a book I'll be raving about for a good long while!"--Paula McLain, author of "The Paris Wife"