Emily McCrae has had a difficult year. She’s been struggling to write new latest book, number ten in the Petal Bloom cozy mystery series. She’s been sick with a mysterious illness that no doctor can diagnose or cure. And her husband left her. And to make it worse, her ex is demanding a cut of her latest book’s royalties as well as any future royalties she earns from the series, since she had started writing it when they were still together.
Emily’s best friend is Cress Chandler, self-help guru and bestselling author of You Got This! and Things My Mama Never Taught Me. She has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, thanks to her popular advice column, her TED talk, and her interview with Oprah. It’s her idea to sweep Emily away to Italy for six weeks, to stay at Villa Aestas. The villa has a reputation, due to the murder that happened there back in the 1970s, but Chess is not bothered by the past. She wants to relax with her friend and look toward the future.
Emily knew a little bit about what had happened at the villa, but it’s not until she gets there that she is really drawn into its history. Their first night there, Chess plays Lara Larchmont’s Aestas, the famous album that the villa was renamed for, based on the fact that the songs had been written there. While they had both heard the songs many times through their lives, listening to it in the villa infuses the evening with a gravitas that takes hold in Emily. So when she finds a copy of Lilith Rising, the novel that Mari Godwick had written that summer, Emily has to read it. Between those works and her many internet searches, she finds herself drawn into the events of the summer of 1974.
Mari was only 19 that summer, as was her stepsister Lara. Mari had been with Pierce Sheldon for three years, when she had left her father’s house to be with him. Pierce was married already and had a son, but he had left them behind to go to London and be a musician. After years of hard work, he is finally noticed by rock star Noel Gordon, who invites Pierce and Mari to spend the summer at an Italian villa, while he writes material for his new album. Part of the reason they met Noel is because of Lara, who had been seeing him. So they all went to the villa, Lara and Mari and Pierce. When they get there, they also meet Johnnie, who is also a musician, but more importantly, he is Noel’s dealer.
Mari is hoping that this time in Italy will good for her and Pierce. If Pierce can write some music with Noel and play on his upcoming album, that will push his career ahead by leaps and bounds. And she is hoping to get some time to write. But she also realizes that there are a lot of distractions—the Italian wines, the drugs, and the flirtations. She tries to keep an eye on the guys, to make sure that they’re getting some work done, but she is also finding herself taken in by an idea she’s had. She starts constructing a story about a teenage girl who moves to a country villa with her parents and falls in love with a young priest.
As Chess works on her latest self-help book, Emily finds herself struggling to get back to Petal Bloom. But her deep dive into the murder that happened at the villa is fascinating her, and she finds herself writing about it instead, a mix of memoir and true crime, a blending of Mari’s story with her own. But when Chess suggests that they write it together, Emily finds herself questioning their relationship and what she really wants for her future.
As the summer goes by for Mari, she is getting a lot of writing done on her gothic novel, but she’s also seeing that things at the villa are not going as well for everyone else. Johnnie is feeling pushed aside as a musician, the sexual tension is rising throughout the house, and Mari finds Pierce stoned more often than she would like. When Pierce gets tired of it all and wants to leave, Mari is so close to finishing her novel, and she’s worried that if they go back to London now, she’ll never be able to finish it. So she convinces him to stay. And that’s when the trip devolves to murder.
Emily becomes convinced that Mari left behind hints in her book about what really happened that summer, and maybe even left behind some of her writing in the villa. And if she can find that, the book she’s been working on will be life-changing. But she also has to decide if she’s going to share any of it with her best friend Chess. And when things come to a head at the villa once again, Emily will have to decide how much of herself and her story to give to this new book, and to the villa itself, because it is said that houses remember.
The Villa is the latest thriller from Rachel Hawkins, and it is breathtaking. Told in alternating timelines, between the present summer and the fateful summer of 1974, this story asks questions about art, relationships, jealousy, and love and comes up with answers that are sometimes uncomfortable. It compares the 1970s lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll with the lifestyle of today that emphasizes social media, self-actualization, and success at any cost.
I thought the premise of The Villa was interesting, but the storytelling in it is absolutely beautiful. These characters spring to life from the pages, and the way the stories intersect and overlap is so skillful that I hardly noticed time was passing as I read. There are snippets throughout of articles, song lyrics, podcast transcription, and bits of Mari’s book, which offer up a different perspective of the crime or a bit of gossip, adding layers of humor and insight into the story.
I adored this novel. It’s possible that this will turn out to be my favorite book of the year, which is strange to find only three days in. But it’s just that good. I will be thinking about this one for a long time, savoring the stories and the characters and asking my own questions about the price of art and the sacrifices we make in relationships. This book is fun and layered, so it would be great for a book club, but it’s also just an amazing read for a weekend by the pool or curled up on the sofa in front of a roaring fireplace.
Egalleys for The Villa were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.
