Out of Her Depth
A Novel
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4.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
There are summers that will change your life.
There are summers that may end it.
In the lush green hills beyond Florence sits the Villa Medici—a graceful pensione surrounded by manicured gardens. Rachel, a college student from an unfashionable London suburb, can’t believe her luck in landing a summer job here. Especially when she’s drawn into a circle of privileged young sophisticates, including her glamorous coworker Diana, who promises to help Rachel win the affections of handsome, confident Sebastian.
But as champagne flows and rivalries fester in the Tuscan countryside, Rachel realizes that Diana has motivations of her own. Adrift in a world of backstabbing and bed-hopping, lavish parties and easy betrayal, Rachel feels the stakes rising along with the temperature until, one night, something snaps. Someone dies. And nothing will ever be the same…
In this atmospheric thriller set in sun-drenched Tuscany, Lizzy Barber weaves a deadly web of manipulation and desire that will keep readers enthralled until the breathtaking last page.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this uneven psychological thriller from Barber (A Girl Named Anna), an unnamed teacher at an English girls' school is alarmed to learn that an appeal in the case of Sebastian Hale is about to proceed. Flash back 29 years. Fiscally challenged Rachel Bailey receives an offer she can't refuse—four free months at the Villa Medici in Florence, Italy, in exchange for "light housekeeping, waitressing, a bit of cooking"—before she enrolls at Cambridge University. At the villa, she rooms with wealthy, privileged Diana Turner. Despite coming from opposite social and economic worlds, they become an "exclusive club of two." Then 20-year-old Oxford student Sebastian, a "young Hugh Grant," descends as a "catalyst that changed it all," triggering a troubled romantic triangle. During a hot August holiday work break on a friend's yacht, tragedy strikes. Sebastian is charged with murder, convicted, and given a lengthy sentence. A tale of jealousy, betrayal, and vengeance unfolds in alternating then and now chapters. An efficient prose style compensates only in part for an overly protracted plot and a ponderous conclusion. Patricia Highsmith fans may want to have a look.
