num_pages: 279
description: From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense set at an Italian villa with a dark history for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.As kids Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now but in 1974 it was known as Villa Rosato and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark Noel invites up-and-coming musician Pierce Sheldon to join him as well as Pierces girlfriend Mari and her stepsister Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time Lara composing a platinum albumand ends in Pierces brutal murder.As Emily digs into the villas complicated history she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierces murder wasnt just a tale of sex drugs and rock &amp; roll gone wrong but that something more sinister might have occurredand that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emergeand it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.
language: English
title: The Villa
publisher: St. Martin's Press