Summer House

Set in the English Lake District, McLeay's fifth novel (following After Shanghai) concerns three families: the pearl merchant Kassels, who search for beauty; the acquisitive Dunstans, who seize what they want; and the intellectual Aschams, who admire from afar. Spanning the years between 1912 and 1919, the story begins when self-made industrialist Alfred Dunstan buys a summer home next door to 15-year-old narrator Christabel Ascham and her family. Soon, however, rough-around-the-edges Alfred transports almost the entire cast to Venice where he hopes to acquire the culture to complement his commerce. In Venice, they are shown a priceless strand of pearls, supposedly passed from Catherine de Medici to Mary, Queen of Scots to Elizabeth I; this necklace later beomes the basis for blackmail and intrigue. Unfortunately for Alfred, the corruptly beautiful city on the water is also the setting where his previously docile wife, Letty, falls for a man 20 years her junior with a passion that is later mirrored in Christabel's own life. Occasionally, there's just too much going on, what with multiple romances, the pearl mystery and WWI. And Christabel's objective narrative too coolly relates the passions swirling around her, at least until her own are roused. Still, McLeay is a smoothly skillfull writer, and her novel gracefully captures the feel of innocence about to be alchemized into unwilling knowledge, and of Europe on the brink of the World Wars. (July)