A New York Times Notable Book: “The most engrossing novel I’ve come across in a long time. ” —Newsweek

Fortysomething Sophy Chase has just begun her new, lighthearted, romantically adventurous life in New York City. But it comes to a screeching halt when she learns that her ex-husband—or technically, her almost-ex-husband, who is also an ex-CIA agent—has been found dead, on the island off of Massachusetts where she left him just months before.

Lured back to New England by feelings she thought she’d left behind, Sophy must navigate her grown stepdaughters; a former lover who is now a celebrity lawyer; the mystery of her husband’s death—and her own darkest impulses—in a “novel about death, divorce, exes, lovers and surrogate children on and off a snooty East Coast island… . Page-turning suspense that doesn’t skimp on characterization or intelligence” (Publishers Weekly).

“Benedict captures finely tuned calibrations of feeling… . [She] seems to understand humor’s real function … to get us through the day. ” —Newsday