The Summer House

Rose Fell's friends think she's taking a big risk when she leaves the security of home and career to move to the beautiful but isolated village of Grosso, near Genoa. But after a year of emotional turmoil Rose no longer has any ties back home, and she relishes the challenges of a new start.

Making a home, however, in the ravishing, haunted landscape of Italy's Riviera coast turns our to be lonelier than Rose had anticipated. And it is only when she is asked to write a profile on one of her reclusive neighbours, the once-glamorous film star Elvira Vitale, that Rose feels her new life is really beginning.

But when a young girl's body is found on the local beach, and the following day Elvira's hard-working cleaner, Ania, goes missing, Rose finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation that threatens the idyll she has worked so hard to establish.

“Kent is an extremely fine writer and makes terrific use in particular of the Fens' waterlogged, empty landscape in which secrets can be easily buried if never quite forgotten...Terrifyingly good - MetroAtmospheric and psychologically acute throughout - Sunday TimesChristobel Kent is one of our most assured thriller writers. The Loving Husband is a perfectly paced and plotted novel - Good HousekeepingBrilliant...A spooky, gripping and affecting story - Louise DoughtyAtmospheric and eerily menacing, this cracking psychological thriller demands to be read with all the lights on - Psychologies on The Crooked HouseChristobel Kent is a brilliant writer - India Knight”

Kent is an extremely fine writer and makes terrific use in particular of the Fens' waterlogged, empty landscape in which secrets can be easily buried if never quite forgotten...Terrifyingly good - Metro

Atmospheric and psychologically acute throughout - Sunday Times

Christobel Kent is one of our most assured thriller writers. The Loving Husband is a perfectly paced and plotted novel - Good Housekeeping

Brilliant...A spooky, gripping and affecting story - Louise Doughty

Atmospheric and eerily menacing, this cracking psychological thriller demands to be read with all the lights on - Psychologies on The Crooked House

Christobel Kent is a brilliant writer - India Knight

Christobel Kent was born in London and educated at Cambridge. She has lived variously in Essex, London and Italy. Her childhood included several years spent on a Thames sailing barge in Maldon, Essex with her father, stepmother, three siblings and four step-siblings. She now lives in both Cambridge and Florence with her husband and five children.

Rose Fell's friends think she's taking a big risk when she leaves the security of home and career to move to the beautiful but isolated village of Grosso, near Genoa. But after a year of emotional turmoil Rose no longer has any ties back home, and she relishes the challenges of a new start. Making a home, however, in the ravishing, haunted landscape of Italy's Riviera coast turns our to be lonelier than Rose had anticipated. And it is only when she is asked to write a profile on one of her reclusive neighbours, the once-glamorous film star Elvira Vitale, that Rose feels her new life is really beginning. But when a young girl's body is found on the local beach, and the following day Elvira's hard-working cleaner, Ania, goes missing, Rose finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation that threatens the idyll she has worked so hard to establish.

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