PLANTATION HILL

A scion of a wealthy Florida clan copes with loss and an evil stepmother in this novel.

An elegant mansion, long owned by the Hart family, sits atop a hill surrounded by orange groves, lovingly referred to as Plantation Hill. In 1991, June Ward, a journalist with a drinking problem, is on location at the mansion, working on a story about the Harts. Thomas Ace Hart III, known as “Tee,” was raised at Plantation Hill and currently lives there with his family. His wife, Sara, gave birth to their daughter, Blossom,in 1957before succumbing to lung cancer. Later,in 1975, Tee married Irene, a woman who’s “under suspicion for the death of three ex-husbands.” When Tee goes missing himself, 33-year-old Blossom embarks on a search for her dad and attempts to take down Irene once and for all. Lynaugh, the author of Ten Golden Rules (2010), offers a hefty dose of description in her prose—almost to a fault. Still, she has a distinct knack for worldbuilding and setting scenes: “The hills...are more like a ridge, with small rolling domes of sandy peaks rising abruptly from the surrounding flat terrain.” That said, the prose can be repetitive, and its many grammatical errors (“I transformed into this self-restraint timid news reporter”) sometimes halt the narrative flow. The story repeatedly switches from first- to third-person narration with no warning; it also unexpectedly shifts tenses, and its excessively quick pacing can make the story difficult to follow at times. There’s also a final, damning piece of evidence in a courtroom scene that feels very much like a deus ex machina.

A family saga with a worthwhile premise that’s hampered by flawed prose.