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When ninety-nine-year-old heiress Josephine Bettendorf Warrick summons
Brooke Trappnell to Talisa Island, her 20,000 acre remote barrier island
home, Brooke is puzzled. Everybody in the South has heard about the
eccentric millionaire mistress of Talisa, but Brooke has never met her.
Josephine's cryptic note says she wants to discuss an important legal
matter with Brooke, who is an attorney, but Brooke knows that Mrs.
Warrick has long been a client of a prestigious Atlanta law firm. Over a
few meetings, the ailing Josephine spins a tale of old friendships,
secrets, betrayal and a long-unsolved murder. She tells Brooke she is
hiring her for two reasons: to protect her island and legacy from those
who would despoil her land, and secondly, to help her make amends with
the heirs of the long dead women who were her closest friends, the girls
of The High Tide Club - so named because of their youthful skinny
dipping escapades - Millie, Ruth and Varina. Even at the end of her
life, Josephine seems unwilling or unable to face her past, deliberately
evading Brooke's questions. When Josephine dies with her secrets
intact, Brooke is charged with contacting Josephine's friends'
descendants and bringing them together on Talisa for a reunion of women
who've actually never met. What follows is a tale of a romance thwarted,
friendships renewed, justice delivered and true love found.
Genre: fiction, suspense
Publication date: June 2018
Mature content: nothing graphic, but there is mention of rape and murder.
Review: The High Tide club is a very well crafted story, running on two different time frames but that then come full circle.
Josephine is dying and she wants to make amends with her best friends before she passes away: Millie, Ruth and Varina - the girls of the High Tide Club. As it turns out, only one of them is still alive, but the others' closest relatives end up getting together to unveil Josephine's web of secrets. In the meantime, Josephine dies, leaving her will unsigned and many doubts about who will inherit her fortune.
The suspense part of the book is very good. Was Josephine's death accidental? After all, she was ninety nine years old and terminally ill. Who is the man who now claims is Josephine's son? What rights have Josephine's estranged cousins? Why have the High Tide Club members drifted apart when they were the closest of friends? And what happened to Russell Strickland, who was engaged to Millie but disappeared from the island the day after their engagement party in 1941 never to be seen again? There's enough material to keep you glued to this book until the very end.
I did find The High Tide Club a bit on the longer side, and in some places the action moved too slowly. Also, I wanted to have some more details of Brooke's reunion with the father of her son and I found that part of the book, almost at the very end, to be somewhat rushed.
Still, it's a very entertaining read and I recommend it.
Josephine is dying and she wants to make amends with her best friends before she passes away: Millie, Ruth and Varina - the girls of the High Tide Club. As it turns out, only one of them is still alive, but the others' closest relatives end up getting together to unveil Josephine's web of secrets. In the meantime, Josephine dies, leaving her will unsigned and many doubts about who will inherit her fortune.
The suspense part of the book is very good. Was Josephine's death accidental? After all, she was ninety nine years old and terminally ill. Who is the man who now claims is Josephine's son? What rights have Josephine's estranged cousins? Why have the High Tide Club members drifted apart when they were the closest of friends? And what happened to Russell Strickland, who was engaged to Millie but disappeared from the island the day after their engagement party in 1941 never to be seen again? There's enough material to keep you glued to this book until the very end.
Still, it's a very entertaining read and I recommend it.
Happy Wednesday,
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