Publish date: 1st April 2010
The three Douglas sisters were all expected to do well. Now, as they approach middle age, Gillian has her career and Frances is successfully bringing up her sons on her own. Then comes the phone call from Alec, the husband who left her for her sister Susan, thirteen years ago. Susan has disappeared, abandoning Alec and her daughter Kate. Who's responsible for he surly teenager Kate now? Not Frances, surely? As they begin to wonder what has really happened to her, Frances and Gillian find their sister is as powerful and disruptive as ever.
'I don't see the point in waiting for Susan to turn up. I have waited, quite a long time.'
'I can't believe this.' Frances set her glass down with a sharp clink on the wooden floor. 'You're giving up on your wife, barely four months after she disappears. You said yourself she was ill. She could be in desperate circumstances. Alec, she could be dead.' She stopped, appalled. Only the wine could have made her say this.
“Sensitively written, it contains keen characterisation and a strong awareness of the problems facing women today.”
-Scottish Review of Books