A story of murder, self-discovery, and family, deep in the heart of France.
Behind the golden stone walls of a village in southwest France, American Merle Bennett finds solace from her grief while renovating her late husband's ancestral home. But things don't go as planned. Soon any calm she feels in her French summer is overshadowed by secrets from the past. A crumbling house, a deranged squatter, unfriendly and violent villagers, a surprise in the garden house โ it makes a girl almost wish for the sleepy suburbs. But Merle can't go home until all is resolved, one way or another.In Blackbird Fly, her first suspense novel, Lise McClendon reveals her love of both the French countryside and the intimacies and drama of family, in a book novelist Jenny Siler calls "heartbreakingly beautiful."
"A literary suspense novel. McClendon's love for the French countryside is evident. A rewarding read for the discerning."
A house in France connects three women together โ the woman who owns the house, the one who lives in the house, and the one who died in the house sixty years before. Merle Bennett inherits the house of her
late husband, in a small village in the Dordogne but a deranged squatter won't let her inside. Secrets from the post-war period, when southwest France was left to wither by Nazi occupation, and secrets of a newer kind, disrupt what should be a fine French summer.With her teenage son in tow, a sexy roofer in her kitchen, and a nasty discovery in the pissoir, there is plenty to keep Merle's mind off her endless to-do list.
The descriptions of the French village and house make them a character with very much influence on Merle's experience. Love and intrigue, and proof that family bonds are strong enough to reach beyond the grave. โLuxury Reading