Well, the summer reading season has officially begun. What better way to kick it off then with a Mary Kay Andrews book! Her latest is The Newcomer. I will skip the preamble about how much I love this author’s writing. What I will share is that I believe this is my favorite of all her books, and that’s saying something.
Synopsis:
After the death of her sister, Tanya, Letty grabs her four-year-old niece and flees New York. In her sister’s already packed “go bag” Letty finds an article about a family-owned motel in Florida. Why does her sister have a “go bag”? Why the article? Letty decides the motel is where she’s going to hide with Maya. Letty arrives in Treasure Island Florida with Maya, few possessions, and one very big secret. Oh – and she needs a job and a place to stay.
Why is Letty hiding? That is just one mystery in this cleverly plotted, fast-paced story.
Upon arriving, Letty quickly scores a room, a job at the motel, and the friendship of its soft-hearted owner, Ava. All of this makes Ava’s son, Joe, very suspicious. Just to keep things interesting, Joe is a police officer. Joe aims to get to the bottom of why Letty is hiding at his mom’s hotel. Of course it does not take long for him to fall for her and complicate matters tremendously. Due to all the drama surrounding Letty, their developing relationship is secondary to why her sister died. There are also questions regarding the complex history between the sisters, and how Tanya is connected to the motel.
Review:
The last few novels that Andrews has treated us to have featured mysteries central to the story. This was good preparation for this book, which is little grittier than her others, and as noted above, light on the romance. Some other traditional elements of the author’s storytelling are also absent: elaborate descriptions of fashion and décor, and not an antique in sight. I also missed her usual references to meals that the characters eat. In the past, her books have often made me very hungry with culinary descriptions as sumptuous as an episode of Ina Garten’s The Barefoot Contessa (MKA wrote a cookbook that I highly recommend, review here).
Andrews consistently creates a perfectly colorful setting. Her description of Treasure Island (where ironically I’m visiting this summer) is pure summer beach town (albeit in this case, winter in FL). I could smell the salt air and feel the sand in my toes. Having spent two decades in south Florida, I delighted in her Floridian references. I have never ever read a book where Immokalee Florida was mentioned – LOL! My Naples peeps will totally understand this.
The author had a knack for comedy. The cast of elderly snowbirds who reside at the motel during the winter months are a hoot. They provide a nice balance to the not-so-funny aspects. I detest scary or gory books and will not read them, so rest assured there’s nothing that crosses the line. Still, the story has an FBI agent, fugitives, kidnapping, guns, murder, and sharks! And guess what? It totally worked! I was engaged from beginning to end and devoured the book in one day. Lucky for me, it was Mother’s Day and I had no responsibilities and was left alone to read.
Five stars!
Thank you to Mary Kay Andrews, Tandem Literary, and St. Martin’s Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.