A sublime comedy of contemporary manners, this is the novel Jane Austen might well have written had she lived in twenty-first- century California. Nothing ever moves in a straight line in Karen Joy Fowler's fiction, and in her latest, the complex dance of modern love has never been so devious or so much fun. Six Californians join to discuss Jane Austen's novels. Over the six months they meet, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements...

In the midst of a bad drought, the shores of a local lake recede to reveal an old abandoned car. Megan is intrigued by the Depression-era jalopy and puzzled when her fellow amateur sleuths would rather get back to discussing Agatha Christie. Then bodies start popping up all over town, ritually murdered, and current crimes take precedence over old secrets. It's Megan who discovers the corpses, making her the prime suspect. To clear her name, she'll...