Murphy likes to take lawyer characters out of their geographic and emotional comfort zones, and in this, perhaps his best book yet, he makes the discomfort both sharper and more nebulous than we’re used to. The author’s (An Honest Living) main character is Jim, who’s married to Valentina; they spend the summer in a house he inherited in Buzzards Bay, on the southeastern coast of Massachusetts. Before he met Valentina, he gave his tight pack of college friends shares in the home; over the years, they’ve summered there, some regularly, others rarely seen. This summer sees the return of several regulars and of Bruce, who hasn’t shown up in years. He brings with him a darkness that creeps over the old friends and becomes especially pronounced when the residents, in a nod to the house’s origins as a home for an occult group, holds a séance. A French woman who’s an ex of one of the gang, with her languid but also guarded ways, will be memorable for her strange manner. But all the characters and even the house will stay with readers, especially those who enjoy introspective language (“there was something petty, almost squalid, in not appreciating a friend’s beauty until she was holding it there before you”) and a slight tinge of the supernatural.
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