Edge of the Gulf, The
by Hadley Hury
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When someone you love is taken from you--in an instant--how do you cope? Laurel Beach is one of the last old-fashioned villages in the West Florida panhandle, one that has, so far, escaped commercial over-development. It presents both a haven and opportunity, and, this summer, it plays host to a varied cast. Grief has nearly destroyed Hudson DeForest. He's barely been going through the motions, teaching in a Memphis girls school, writing about film, talking to the dog. He's hanging on by a show more thread. It's been two years since Kate died, two years of grappling with profound loss, with the impact of the marriage of a lifetime cut short. Hudson's friend Charlie Brompton, the successful developer and restaurateur, is facing a different loss. He's growing old. It's time for him to let go of his most beloved enterprise, the mecca of fine dining known as the 26-A after the panhandle highway where it sits. And of its funky adjunct, The Blue Bar. With no immediate family as heirs, Charlie's considering his choice of successors. And what he should do for his godson, Chaz? He also wonders if Hudson will return to Laurel Beach, to the cottage he occupied with Kate. Will Hudson ever forgive him? Meanwhile Chaz has met Sydney, a former actress. They're living well in Atlanta, thinking about marriage. Thinking, too, that perhaps they should goto Laurel Beach, touch base with Charlie.... As Hudson settles in and doggedly takes up his summer project--he has a book contract for a collection of his film reviews--the undying past and a present struggling to be born exert their fierce, and sometimes indistinguishable, claims. So it is for Charlie, and for Sydney and Chaz. Gradually a bizarre maelstrom of deceit, betrayal, and murder evolves in Laurel Beach, ensnaring the wealthy and the beautiful, the misguided andthe desperate. Will its force fill Hudson with newfound determination to celebrate life--or will it destroy those he still holds dear? show lessTags
Member Reviews
Hadley Hury’s debut novel, The Edge of the Gulf, first published in 2003, shows a great deal of promise—likeable characters, great setting, and an engaging if somewhat unrealistic plot. Unfortunately, other elements prevent this otherwise engrossing work from achieving its full potential.
The book opens on Florida’s Emerald Coast where Charlie Brompton, a wealthy, childless man has amassed a small fortune in real estate assets, including two very popular restaurants and a significant holding of undeveloped beach property. He plans to put the beach property, worth at least one hundred million, in a trust to ensure its environmental preservation but has not yet changed his will that bequeaths his estate to his cousin, Peter Cullen, show more now deceased. His only remaining blood relative is Peter’s son, Charles (Chaz), recently married, who appears to have finally overcome his misspent youth and is operating a successful art business in Atlanta. Also recently Charlie’s old friend, Hudson DeForest, struggling to move on from the loss of his wife two years earlier, has finally returned for the summer to his nearby cabin to work on a collection of film critiques for his soon-to-be-published book and to rejoin the circle of caring neighbors after a self-imposed absence. Into this close-knit group come Chaz and his bride, a pair so beautiful and so perfect they turn heads wherever they go. The tension of the narrative derives from the newlyweds’ plot to get their hands on Charlie’s beach property before he can change his will.
While Hury displays considerable talent in manipulating the storyline for maximum suspense and the narrative itself provides solid entertainment, I found the constant interruption by film reviews both contrived and pretentious. If I had wanted to read a collection of movie critiques I would have bought a book of movie critiques and not a mystery/thriller. Perhaps Hury was trying to expand an otherwise short novel but I would rather he had worked just a bit harder on the plot and left the reviews on the cutting room floor. show less
The book opens on Florida’s Emerald Coast where Charlie Brompton, a wealthy, childless man has amassed a small fortune in real estate assets, including two very popular restaurants and a significant holding of undeveloped beach property. He plans to put the beach property, worth at least one hundred million, in a trust to ensure its environmental preservation but has not yet changed his will that bequeaths his estate to his cousin, Peter Cullen, show more now deceased. His only remaining blood relative is Peter’s son, Charles (Chaz), recently married, who appears to have finally overcome his misspent youth and is operating a successful art business in Atlanta. Also recently Charlie’s old friend, Hudson DeForest, struggling to move on from the loss of his wife two years earlier, has finally returned for the summer to his nearby cabin to work on a collection of film critiques for his soon-to-be-published book and to rejoin the circle of caring neighbors after a self-imposed absence. Into this close-knit group come Chaz and his bride, a pair so beautiful and so perfect they turn heads wherever they go. The tension of the narrative derives from the newlyweds’ plot to get their hands on Charlie’s beach property before he can change his will.
While Hury displays considerable talent in manipulating the storyline for maximum suspense and the narrative itself provides solid entertainment, I found the constant interruption by film reviews both contrived and pretentious. If I had wanted to read a collection of movie critiques I would have bought a book of movie critiques and not a mystery/thriller. Perhaps Hury was trying to expand an otherwise short novel but I would rather he had worked just a bit harder on the plot and left the reviews on the cutting room floor. show less
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