Saltwater: A Novel
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

As befits a tiny gem of an island, an equally small cast of characters, the Lingate family, gathers on Capri in 1992 for the kind of vacation only the wealthy can enjoy. Brothers Marcus and Richard and their respective wives, Naomi and Sarah, sip champagne and Prada-prowl the shops. Overtly and sometimes covertly, the tensions of their conjoined relationships emerge, exploding on the night Sarah drowns, perhaps accidentally, perhaps not. As they have been doing for the 30 years since that tragedy, the Lingates have returned to Capri, an annual pilgrimage of remorse, remembrance, and, this year, revenge. This time they are joined by Richard's and Sarah's now 33-year-old daughter Helen and Lorna, Marcus' assistant, and the young women vow to uncover the truth behind Sarah's death. To say more would be to reveal spoilers, a disservice to careful readers, who should prepare for a ride as exhilarating as the ferries that transport the elites from villa to yacht. Sleuthing minds will cavort with acrobatic prowess, reeling from one unexpected twist to another, as Lorna's startling disappearance echoes Sarah's demise. Hitchcockian in its film-noirish malevolence, Hays' second novel (following The Cloisters, 2022) also deviously channels Patricia Highsmith's cunningly and sympathetically flawed characters to deliver an absorbing read.

Hays's stellar sophomore novel (after The Cloisters) is a powerful, surprise-packed study of family, wealth, and consequences. In 1992, promising playwright Sarah Lingate--wife of the youngest heir to the Lingate oil fortune--drowned beneath the cliffs of the family's property in Capri. Her daughter, Helen, was three years old at the time. Three decades after Sarah's death, which was officially ruled an accident, the Lingates are preparing for their latest trip to Capri when Helen intercepts an anonymous package addressed to her uncle that contains a necklace Sarah was wearing the night she drowned. Before the family arrives in Capri, Helen and her friend, Lorna, who happens to be her uncle's assistant, decide to seize on the opportunity and use the necklace to blackmail the family for 10 million euros, which would allow them to break free of the Lingates' suffocating clutches. When Lorna disappears, however, it becomes clear that each member of the Lingate family has their own agenda--and that many of them are willing to go to extremes to keep the police from reinvestigating Sarah's death. Hays uses the island setting to brilliantly exploit locked-room mystery tropes, and doles out jaw-dropping reveals at just the right moments. This masterful suspense story has all the momentum of a runaway train. Agent: Sarah Phair, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (Mar.)

Following up her debut, The Cloisters (a Read with Jenna Pick), Hays takes readers to the island of Capri off the coast of Italy, where the wealthy and private Lingate family return each year, despite the death of matriarch Sarah, wife of Richard, 30 years ago. Sarah's death is still a mystery: did she fall from the cliff accidentally or did she jump? Or was she pushed? For daughter Helen, those questions are a side note to plans she's made for this year's visit to the island. All her life she has been suffocated by her family's power, money, and obsession with keeping up appearances. Now, having formed a friendship and alliance with her uncle's assistant, Lorna, she thinks she's found a way out. But the plan hinges on reminding everyone of Sarah's death and threatening to expose long-buried secrets. Once the plan is in motion, they lose control of the players with deadly effect. VERDICT The tension in this atmospheric novel builds like a drumbeat as Hays explores the secrets that lie within a privileged family and keeps readers guessing from one twist to the next. For fans of Lucy Foley and Lucinda Berry.--Jane Jorgenson

On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother's death 30 years earlier--her own family. When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she's grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus' assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah--as well as, later, a few others--we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play,Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen's life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she'll take the risk. Lorna's motives are both murkier and more straightforward--she's never had money, and she's got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end--well, the end shocks. And it's well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed. A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* As befits a tiny gem of an island, an equally small cast of characters, the Lingate family, gathers on Capri in 1992 for the kind of vacation only the wealthy can enjoy. Brothers Marcus and Richard and their respective wives, Naomi and Sarah, sip champagne and Prada-prowl the shops. Overtly and sometimes covertly, the tensions of their conjoined relationships emerge, exploding on the night Sarah drowns, perhaps accidentally, perhaps not. As they have been doing for the 30 years since that tragedy, the Lingates have returned to Capri, an annual pilgrimage of remorse, remembrance, and, this year, revenge. This time they are joined by Richard's and Sarah's now 33-year-old daughter Helen and Lorna, Marcus' assistant, and the young women vow to uncover the truth behind Sarah's death. To say more would be to reveal spoilers, a disservice to careful readers, who should prepare for a ride as exhilarating as the ferries that transport the elites from villa to yacht. Sleuthing minds will cavort with acrobatic prowess, reeling from one unexpected twist to another, as Lorna's startling disappearance echoes Sarah's demise. Hitchcockian in its film-noirish malevolence, Hays' second novel (following The Cloisters, 2022) also deviously channels Patricia Highsmith's cunningly and sympathetically flawed characters to deliver an absorbing read. Copyright 2025 Booklist Reviews.

Bestselling Hays (The Cloisters) sets her newest on the Italian island of Capri. Thirty years ago, Helen's mother, Sarah Lingate, was found dead there, but the insular and wealthy family still annually holidays at their villa. This year, they arrive to find the necklace that Sarah was wearing the night she died—and it becomes increasingly clear that her death won't be the last. Prepub Alert. Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Following up her debut, The Cloisters (a Read with Jenna Pick), Hays takes readers to the island of Capri off the coast of Italy, where the wealthy and private Lingate family return each year, despite the death of matriarch Sarah, wife of Richard, 30 years ago. Sarah's death is still a mystery: did she fall from the cliff accidentally or did she jump? Or was she pushed? For daughter Helen, those questions are a side note to plans she's made for this year's visit to the island. All her life she has been suffocated by her family's power, money, and obsession with keeping up appearances. Now, having formed a friendship and alliance with her uncle's assistant, Lorna, she thinks she's found a way out. But the plan hinges on reminding everyone of Sarah's death and threatening to expose long-buried secrets. Once the plan is in motion, they lose control of the players with deadly effect. VERDICT The tension in this atmospheric novel builds like a drumbeat as Hays explores the secrets that lie within a privileged family and keeps readers guessing from one twist to the next. For fans of Lucy Foley and Lucinda Berry.—Jane Jorgenson

Hays's stellar sophomore novel (after The Cloisters) is a powerful, surprise-packed study of family, wealth, and consequences. In 1992, promising playwright Sarah Lingate—wife of the youngest heir to the Lingate oil fortune—drowned beneath the cliffs of the family's property in Capri. Her daughter, Helen, was three years old at the time. Three decades after Sarah's death, which was officially ruled an accident, the Lingates are preparing for their latest trip to Capri when Helen intercepts an anonymous package addressed to her uncle that contains a necklace Sarah was wearing the night she drowned. Before the family arrives in Capri, Helen and her friend, Lorna, who happens to be her uncle's assistant, decide to seize on the opportunity and use the necklace to blackmail the family for 10 million euros, which would allow them to break free of the Lingates' suffocating clutches. When Lorna disappears, however, it becomes clear that each member of the Lingate family has their own agenda—and that many of them are willing to go to extremes to keep the police from reinvestigating Sarah's death. Hays uses the island setting to brilliantly exploit locked-room mystery tropes, and doles out jaw-dropping reveals at just the right moments. This masterful suspense story has all the momentum of a runaway train. Agent: Sarah Phair, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (Mar.)