Fiction review: Ladies of the Lake

FICTION
Sibling rivalry is usually enough to give an edge to most family get-togethers. Throw in a will that insists that the siblings spend the entire summer together before they inherit, and the result, as Haywood Smith describes in "Ladies of the Lake," is an engaging tale of sisters reluctantly shedding the past and embracing the present.

When their black-sheep grandmother Cissy dies and leaves four sisters -- Dahlia, Iris, Violet and Rose -- her decrepit lodge and overgrown land on Lake Clare, Ga., they learn that the inheritance comes with strings attached. Before they can dispose of the land, valuable because of its waterfront location and closeness to Atlanta, they must first spend the summer together at the lodge.

It's a condition that poses problems as well as challenges. All four enjoyed summers there as children, but an entire summer together is another matter. Eldest sister Dahlia is the narrator; a former ballet dancer who teaches dance, she is recently divorced. She also faces foreclosure on her Atlanta home and will have to sell her share in the estate immediately.

Since childhood, Dahlia and Iris, a CPA, have quarreled -- Iris is jealous of the closeness Dahlia enjoyed with Cissy -- and their continuing disagreements over the summer will threaten their honoring Cissy's bequest. Violet and Rose are the peacemakers, and as the weeks progress, they are busy defusing quarrels.

Entertaining stories can't rely on family tensions or stories of the past, interesting as they are, to keep our interest, but Smith is an energetic writer who supplies a variety of subplots that intrigue and cheer. Between reviving old disagreements, the sisters must also clean out the house, in particular the dank, cluttered basement where, behind a partition, they find two mummified bodies. Worried that such a discovery might put off potential buyers, they decide to dispose of them on their own, which, of course, creates further complications.

So does the appearance of Clete, who grew up dirt-poor nearby but is currently not only a wealthy businessman but also seems to have become Cissy's adviser and help in her old age. Clete, once a scrawny kid, is now a handsome, mature man whom Dahlia can't help noticing.

The attraction is mutual, but Dahlia, wary of commitment, worries that Clete may have designs on the sisters' land.

True love is as rocky as family togetherness, but Smith offers solutions that surprise and satisfy.

Judith Chettle is a Richmond-based book reviewer and writer.