The Last Summer of the Camperdowns: A Novel

Set on Cape Cod during one tumultuous summer, Elizabeth Kelly’s gothic family story will delight readers of The Family Fang and The Giant’s House . The Last Summer of the Camperdowns , from the best-selling author of Apologize, Apologize! , introduces Riddle James Camperdown, the twelve-year-old daughter of the idealistic Camp and his manicured, razor-sharp wife, Greer. It’s 1972, and Riddle’s father is running for office from the family compound in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Between Camp’s desire to toughen her up and Greer’s demand for glamour, Riddle has her hands full juggling her eccentric parents. When she accidentally witnesses a crime close to home, her confusion and fear keep her silent. As the summer unfolds, the consequences of her silence multiply. Another mysterious and powerful family, the Devlins, slowly emerges as the keepers of astonishing secrets that could shatter the Camperdowns. As an old love triangle, bitter war wounds, and the struggle for status spiral out of control, Riddle can only watch, hoping for the courage to reveal the truth. The Last Summer of the Camperdowns is poised to become the summer’s uproarious and dramatic must-read. Amazon.com Review An Amazon Best Book of the Month, June 2013: “Like my mother, I deplored all that bored me—unlike her, though, I absolved myself of any obligation to be entertaining. I might as well have been born with a pistol in my hand, firing furiously at the floor, ordering life to dance.” So twelve-year-old Riddle “Jimmy” Camperdown (named after Hoffa) slouches hostilely summerward, cultivating her role of family curmudgeon. It’s 1972. Riddle and her parents stave off boredom in their wind-whipped cliff-top estate on Cape Cod primarily by goading each other (and riding horses). Her father, Camp, relishes the thrill of working himself into a lather about the latest Vietnam atrocity. Greer, her glamorous actor mother--once the “Toast of Hollywood,” now on extended hiatus from stage and screen--simmers and smokes, perfecting lacerating one-liners. Camp remained “inexplicably in thrall to her sleek furies,” mostly about money and their lack. Their clashes get a nastier edge as Camp launches a campaign for a state House seat, and their dashing childhood chum Michael Devlin--who’d served with Camp in WWII as a sniper in Bastogne, and later jilted Greer at the altar--chooses that moment to return to town with two teenage sons and announces plans to make public incriminating details of Camp’s war service. Just as it’s dawning on Riddle that her family runs on secrets, she witnesses an act of shocking violence in a barn and--paralyzed by fear--descends into her own pit of secrecy, even when she realizes she’s the only one who knows why the younger Devlin boy is missing. Gleefully wielding the pyrotechnic wit she first flashed in her debut ( Apologize, Apologize! ), Elizabeth Kelly pushes the family dynamics of modern American aristocrats to near-absurd levels, throwing in a menacing stable hand, gorgeous gypsy horses that drive men mad, and a freaky, faceless doll to fine-tune the tension. In its final reckoning, what could have turned campy culminates with unexpectedly rich gravitas. --Mari Malcolm Review “Riveting... Riddle perfectly narrates the events of one crazy, harrowing summer against the tumultuous backdrop of the 1970s. Written with cutting wit and intensity; it doesn’t get any better than this.” ( Library Journal ) “ The Last Summer of the Camperdowns is one of the most delightful beach books evah! It is the literary equivalent of a dozen Wellfleet oysters—salty, sweet, sublime.” ( Elin Hilderbrand, author of *Beautiful Day *) “ The Last Summer of the Camperdowns is both spooky and smart, with a fun-house-mirror cast of Cape Cod Irish aristocrats like no other. It's as if the Kennedys had catapulted themselves into a tale by Edgar Allen Poe—with rollicking, harrowing, and above all highly entertaining results.” ( Holly LeCraw, author of *The Swimming Pool *) “There was no putting down this book. Elizabeth Kelly’s riveting The Last Summer of the Camperdowns left me breathless.” ( Marcy Dermansky, author of *Bad Marie *) “Kelly’s new novel is just as scathingly witty as her best-selling debut but better plotted and even more emotionally harrowing... Kelly skillfully builds almost unbearable tension, slipping in plenty of dark laughs en route to a wrenching climax that leaves in its wake some painfully unresolved questions—just like life. More fine work from a writer with a rare gift for blending wit and rue.” ( Kirkus Reviews ) “The best-selling author of Apologize! Apologize! (2009) returns with another witty take on a dysfunctional family... Kelly is a very entertaining writer with a digressive style and a way with metaphor ...readers will find much to like in this colorful story peopled with larger-than-life personalities.” ( Booklist ) “Kelly’s raucous, deliciously creepy novel about the dysfunction of the ? A New England Society Book Awards Finalist (Fiction) “A witty, suspenseful tale of murder, marital conflict and agonizing secrets.... The exuberant story is transporting and delicious, a worthy summer read.” —People The Last Summer of the Camperdowns, from the best-selling author of Apologize, Apologize!, introduces Riddle James Camperdown, the twelve-year-old daughter of the idealistic Camp and his manicured, razor-sharp wife, Greer. It’s 1972, and Riddle’s father is running for office from the family compound in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Between Camp’s desire to toughen her up and Greer’s demand for glamour, Riddle has her hands full juggling her eccentric parents. When she accidentally witnesses a crime close to home, her confusion and fear keep her silent. As the summer unfolds, the consequences of her silence multiply. Another mysterious and powerful family, the Devlins, slowly emerges as the keepers of astonishing secrets that could shatter the Camperdowns. As an old love triangle, bitter war wounds, and the struggle for status spiral out of control, Riddle can only watch, hoping for the courage to reveal the truth. The Last Summer of the Camperdowns is poised to become the summer’s uproarious and dramatic must-read. Riddle James Camperdown is twelve, the daughter of the idealistic Camp and his manicured, razor-sharp wife, Greer. It's 1972, and Camp is running for office from the family compound in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Between his desire to toughen her up and Greer's demand for glamour, Riddle has her hands full. When she accidentally witnesses a crime, confusion and fear keep Riddle silent. And as the summer unfolds, the consequences of her silence multiply. Another mysterious and powerful family, the Devlins, slowly emerges as the keepers of astonishing secrets that could shatter the Camperdowns. As an old love triangle, bitter war wounds, and the struggle for status spiral out of control, Riddle can only watch, hoping for the courage to reveal the truth A Twelve-year-old Girl Keeps Silent After Witnessing A Crime Near Her Home On Cape Cod During The Summer Of 1972 As Her Parents Struggle With Running A Campaign. Elizabeth Kelly. A Novel--jacket.