Jump to content

The Whaleboat House

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by BrownHairedGirl (talk | contribs) at 09:50, 20 March 2020 (Category:Debut novelsCategory:YYYY debut novels. Categories will be created later with Template:YYYY debut novels category header). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Whaleboat House
First edition (with original name)
AuthorMark Mills
Original titleAmagansett
LanguageEnglish
PublisherFourth Estate
Publication date
2004-06-07
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint
Pages268
ISBN0-00-716190-5
OCLC54424914
Followed byThe Savage Garden 

The Whaleboat House (originally published with the title Amagansett[1]) is a 2004 crime novel by British writer Mark Mills. It is set shortly after the Second World War with the events taking place in and around the small Long Island fishing village of Amagansett.

The novel was originally published under the name Amagansett when it first appeared in 2004.[2] However, when it was later published in paperback, the publishers, HarperCollins, changed the name to The Whaleboat House after deciding that the original title was too elliptical.[3]

Plot summary

Little has changed in Amagansett since the first settlers arrived there some 300 years earlier, but the discovery of the body of Lillian Wallace, a New York socialite, by a local fisherman named Conrad Labarde, shatters the apparent stability and threatens to tear the close-knit community apart.

Labarde (a second generation French Basque recently returned from the war in Europe), and Tom Hollis (a recently divorced former New York police detective posted to the area after his attempt to expose corruption resulted in the death of a colleague), are drawn to investigate Lillian's death, even though it appears to have been a tragic accident. They both have their own separate reasons to suspect that there is more to the death than meets the eye, and that it may have been the result of foul play.

Awards

The novel won the Crime Writers' Association Award for Best Crime Novel by a Debut Author.

References

  1. ^ The Whaleboat House by author Mark Mills Archived 2015-09-09 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2015-09-09.
  2. ^ Sanderson, Mark (8 February 2005). "Literary life: Mark Sanderson peers into the world of books". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 28 August 2009.
  3. ^ "Audio books". Times Online. 22 January 2005. Retrieved 28 August 2009.