Wit's End Book

From the author of the runaway bestseller The Jane Austen Book Club comes a sly and clever novel of mystery, intrigue, and virtual reality.Set in contemporary Santa Cruz, Wit's End opens as Rima Lanisell arrives at her godmother's old Victorian mansion, weary from her recent losses—an inventive if at times irritating father, a beloved brother. (Indeed, Rima seems to lose people and things habitually—sunglasses and keys, lovers and family members.) At loose ends, she has come to coastal California to regroup and to meet that legendary godmother. She soon finds herself enmeshed in a household of eccentrics: a formerly alcoholic cook and her irksome son, two quirky dog-walkers, a mysterious stalker, and of course, godmother Addison Early, a secretive and feisty bestselling mystery writer who once knew Rima's father well. Perhaps too well. Rima is on a mission to discover just what their relationship was all about.

That won't be easy. Over the years, Addison has fought...

The New York Times Book Review - Margot Livesey

What strikes one first is the voice: robust, sly, witty, elegant, unexpected and never boring. Here is a novelist who absolutely comprehends the pleasures of imagination and transformation.