[Review] The High Tide Club - Mary Kay Andrews

Summary: When ninety-nine-year-old heiress Josephine Bettendorf Warrick summons attorney Brooke Trappnell to her 20,000 acre barrier island home, Brooke is puzzled. Everybody in the South has heard about the eccentric millionaire mistress of Talisa, but Brooke has never actually met her. Josephine’s cryptic note says she wants to discuss an important legal matter, but why enlist Brooke and not the prestigious Atlanta law firm she has used for years? Brooke travels to Shellhaven and meets the cagey Josephine, whose home is a crumbling pink mansion at the edge of the turquoise sea.

Over the course of a few meetings, Josephine spins a tale of old friendships, dark secrets, betrayal, and a long-unsolved murder. She is hiring Brooke for two reasons: first, to protect her island from those who would despoil her land, and second, to help her make amends with the heirs of the 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. To fulfill a dying woman’s wishes, Brooke must find Josephine’s friends’ descendants and bringing them together on Talisa for a reunion of women who’ve actually never met. But in doing so, Brooke unleashes the makings of a scandal that could make someone rich beyond their wildest dreams…or cause them to be in the crosshairs of a murderer…. (Pub Date: May 8, 2018)

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

I'm no expert but I think Mary Kay Andrews is turning to more serious stories,don't be fooled by the bright, colorful cover.

3.5, because it still felt ordinary but still enjoyable.

Brooke gets a call from a very atypical new client, it's the recluse millionaire Josephine Warrick, who claims to have known her grandmother. In fact, the two were in some sot of secret club with two others and now Josephine wants to do right by the three. It's Brooke's job to gather everyone and make Josephine's will. As a result, some very different women, descendant's of the original High Tide Club get together in Josephine's island, where a more-than-half-century unsolved murder has taken place. And that's not the only mystery the island guards.

It's a book very hard to classify. It's not really a thriller but it's definitely not focused enough on romance for me to say it is one. I hate calling aything "women's fiction" so I refuse to do it now. In the end, you have a bit of everything.

The book basically takes place nowadays but there are some brief chapters that were flashbacks to when the High Tide Club was young, hinting on what is the answer to the mystery.

I mentioned I found it different from Andrews's usual style because the two other books I've read by her were romance. The first one, Save the Date was good old romance while The Weekenders already hinted at this mystery trend but it still talked about a couple or maybe a love triangle? The High Tide Club does have a couple (or again a love triangle?) but they're far from being its focus.

This book goes on about friendships, about secrets, about making amends and about family—the biological one and the one your heart chooses.

It was a very long read, and yet it went by quickly so much I enjoyed the story. I recommend this for those who like heartwarming reads with a pint of mystery.

Rating: 4 out of 5.