40 Love

It's not quite summer yet, but would recommend as a great read for the pool or beach. Everything you would expect and more.

If Shakespeare's Macbeths had held a tennis party, it would have been just as Madeleine Wickham describes it in her wonderful novel, The Tennis Party. This is a book about the haves, the have-nots and the just plain obnoxious. Caroline and Patrick Chance invite three couples to their English country house, ostensibly to play tennis. Annie and Stephen are overmortgaged and so poor that Annie can't afford tennis clothes for the party and has to borrow from Caroline. Smarmy Charles, an old friend of Patrick's, comes to the party with his spoiled, obnoxious wife, the wealthy Cressida. Equally obnoxious are Don and Valerie, an aggressive father and daughter team who are the only ones who really believe that the weekend is about tennis - and care about nothing but winning the weekend games. But the real game is the one Patrick plays off the tennis court in the den of his country manor, where he attempts, one by one, to persuade each of his male guests to engage in a shaky financial scheme in order to earn a huge bonus to keep up his lifestyle. Only the over-trusting and gullible Stephen buys into the scheme, but, fortunately, is rescued by his wife's and his good sense before the story is over. Nothing is as it appears, as Charles finds out that his wife's financial situation, which he believed to be unshakable, is a disaster. Cressida, for her part, finds out that her husband has been dallying with his ex-paramour, and Stephen learns that his good friend Patrick is little more than an opportunistic crook. The entire situation blows up into a fracas that is both amusing and satisfying. Wickham's sly and understated British humor is evident throughout the book, as is her excellent writing style. Readers who crave Rosamunde Pilcher with an edge will love Madeleine Wickham's The Tennis Party.