Marguerite by the Lake
A Novel
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From Mary Dixie Carter comes an atmospheric, tense novel about the death of a glamorous garden designer, a widower trying to keep his secrets buried, and the beautiful young gardener who finds herself entangled in their lives.
Marguerite Gray is a lifestyle icon known for her garden parties, high-end business ventures, and being the muse behind the famous Serge Kuhnert painting, Marguerite by the Lake. Her presence is overpowering, her taste, legendary. For the last few years, Phoenix has been the gardener on the famed Rosecliff grounds, home of the Gray family: Marguerite and her husband Geoffrey. Phoenix came from humble beginnings, and now she works hard to craft the landscape that underpins Marguerite’s brand.
When a storm threatens the launch party for Marguerite’s latest book, it’s Phoenix who spots the danger to the guests and rushes to Geoffrey’s side to save him from a falling tree. Geoffrey is grateful—perhaps too grateful. Marguerite is . . . jealous. Phoenix senses the danger of being drawn deeper into their lives but can’t resist the attention, becoming embroiled in an affair that could destroy her career.
But soon after the affair begins Marguerite falls to her death, from the same high point at Rosecliff where she posed for Marguerite by the Lake. Now Phoenix has another secret, one that haunts her even as Geoffrey invites her to move into the manor with him. A secret that Detective Hanna and Marguerite’s daughter—her spitting image—are circling closer and closer to. Phoenix tries to put it all behind her and find her rightful place at Rosecliff. But as every gardener knows, nothing stays buried forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This shiver-inducing psychological thriller from Carter (The Photographer) follows a gardener who ingratiates herself with a pair of wealthy clients. Phoenix Sullivan trims hedges for Geoffrey and Marguerite Gray at Rosecliff, their palatial Connecticut home. Phoenix's relationship with the Grays is strictly professional, but that changes during one of popular influencer Marguerite's parties, when Phoenix rescues Geoffrey from a falling spruce. Soon after, the two end up in bed together. When Marguerite finds out, she tussles with Phoenix at the edge of a nearby cliff and falls to her death. At first, Phoenix conceals her role in Marguerite's death, enlisting her brother to provide a false alibi. Soon, however, she allows her desire for Geoffrey to overcome her judgment; despite the bad optics, she moves into Rosecliff, leading the police to smell a rat. Meanwhile, Marguerite's ghost starts to visit Phoenix at all hours. Carter brings readers into Phoenix's fraying mind, wringing some delightfully gothic fireworks out of her struggle to avoid detection and stake her claim as the new mistress of Rosecliff. The result is a winning homage to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.
