MURDER, ROMANCE AND EXPAT GOSSIP IN GRONDÈRE
Summer Shadows in Grondère, the sequel to Kathryn Adams’ first novel, transports Yolanda Carslaw into a world of murder and intrigue in the Swiss Alps
Earlier this year, an exciting parcel arrived for me from Kathryn Adams – an advance copy of the sequel to her gripping, Alps-based whodunnit Death in Grondère.
Within a few paragraphs, Summer Shadows in Grondère had transported me from spring lockdown in Yorkshire to the flower-filled meadows, cool forests and shimmering glaciers of an early Swiss summer – and into the world of Lucy Wilson, the likeable, down-to-earth heroine of Adams’ first novel.
Lucy is setting off on a week-long hike in the Bernese Oberland with her friend and fellow ski instructor Poppy. Both are reflecting on the torrid events of the past winter, which involved murder-by-poison of a respected Grondère grandee and an attempt by the killer to implicate Lucy. Little do they know that they are about to be embroiled in another mountain mystery.
In due course not just one but three grisly deaths pepper the pages of Summer Shadows, with Lucy herself eventually under threat. The action races along, moving between Grondère (based on Verbier), Bern, New York, Leicestershire and Edinburgh, and laced with doses of Polish underworld and British aristocracy. Turning the pages ever more urgently as the plot escalated, I followed Lucy and Poppy in a James Bond-esque evacuation to a high-mountain hut (complete with resident bearded vulture) as autumn set in and the villain was lured out of the shadows.
Adams’ novel will transport you to the glaciers of Switzerland. Author Kathryn Adams plotting her latest book while ski touring above Verbier
Summer Shadows is full of humour, fun and humanity, with Adams getting superb mileage from her brilliantly drawn set of characters.
There are familiar faces, such as the Anglophile detective Blonnay and ski bum Johnny, as well as new characters like the social-climbing Laeticia “call me Letty” Braythwaite, fresh from London and determined to introduce some expat “culture” into Grondère.
We get to know Poppy better as Lucy spends more time with her, and it’s fun to see them taking pleasure in rather uncool things, such as identifying wildflowers and bird song and hunting for reading material in the Swiss National Library. Lucy falls ever more deeply in love with the mountains and with her mountain man, the local policeman Alain.
I won’t reveal more as the plot needs to keep you guessing – but there are rumours of a sequel to this sequel. I hope they’re true: I can’t wait to watch these characters negotiate another epic tale of intrigue to the backdrop of glorious Grondère.
Summer Shadows in Grondère
by Kathryn Adams, from £6.99