A 99-year-old terminally ill heiress hires a lawyer to contact the descendants of her old friends, members of the eponymous High Tide Club, to save her island and make amends. Little do they know the scandal and potentially fatal risk that will ensue from their meeting.
At a glance, the cover promises most of the things Andrews is an old hand at delivering: inviting dialogue, beautiful settings, low-stakes drama, and happy endings. It's no bratty spoiler to assure readers that The High Tide Club has all of these things. The real revelation here is that it has considerably more ... Andrews shuttles her narration back and forth in time, steadily increasing the tension as the mysteries of one era reinforce and amplify the mysteries of the other. This active play of time in the narrative steadily introduces a deeper and more bittersweet element into The High Tide Club than this author has ever risked in one of her sunny summer books ... The High Tide Club works in a murder, an old and long-simmering savage crime, high-stakes personal revelations deployed late in the story to keep things bubbling along, a touch of legal drama, and even some romance rendered with mercifully understated realism.
Settle into your chaise lounge because this story offers a little of everything to keep readers interested and intrigued ... lots of twists and surprises. In the end, Andrews satisfies the questions aroused by all the mysteries and ties together the past and the present in an elegant story that’s more than just a beach read.
It’s all here, folks: Small, quaint Southern beach town. Gorgeous, unspoiled barrier island. Undying female friendships. No-account men ... Plus, a legal conundrum straight out of John Grisham ... The High Tide club will not be mistaken for a work by Henry James, although the plot — heavy on romantic twists, terrible secrets and bald coincidences — would make a pretty good Italian opera. What it really makes is a beach book, with brisk plot, a dash of humor and plenty of female bonding.
