The sudden death of her husband turns Merle Bennett’s life upside down. She finds herself doing what she least expected, decamping to France for the summer to fix up the ancestral home. The village in southwest France should be idyllic: warm sunshine, vineyards, and walls of golden stone. As the past unravels, colliding with modern tensions and the filthy trials of renovation, the summer takes on a dark cast, full of secrets best left buried.In her first stand-alone suspense novel, Lise McClendon reaches deep into the past to find a France untouched by the outside world of tourism and fashion. Writing in a “lyrical, often humorous style,” she brings both the pain and rewards of rebirth and the rich French countryside to life.
Lovely little read I am currently making a concerted effort to go thru the backlog of Kindle freebies in my account. As such, sometimes I come upon a book and have no recollection of what it is about when I start reading. And sometimes I am pleasantly surprised.Â
Blackbird Fly is wonderful! Harry Strachie dies of a heart attack in the first pages. This starts a whole bunch of mysteries, lies, deceits, and intrigue. His wife and son are left without much but a key, a photo, and a deed to a house in France. Merle, his wife, and Tristan, his son, travel to France to see about selling the house. There is a squatter in the house, the people in the village don’t like the Americans, some even seem to hate them. This is a fast moving story, with trips back in time to when Harry’s…
You can’t go wrong with this book I couldn’t put this book down. Lise McClendon has done a masterful job of weaving an intriguing and unexpected web. She keeps the reader begging for more.The character development makes you feel like you know them, with a fascinating mixture of character. This novel has every ingredient a book lover enjoys from murder to adventure to romance. The author’s descriptions vividly transported me to each and every placeand character in the book.