Eve meets Dom in a maze on the shores of Lake Geneva, where she is working as a translator and Dom is enjoying the fruits of having sold his successful business. The maze is the perfect symbol for what follows. They fall in love instantly and move to Provence to buy a property named Les Genévriers, or the junipers. The house is in terrible condition and they make plans to improve it.
Meanwhile, they live with insect husks, dust, dirty walls and a particularly nasty and mysterious stain on the kitchen floor. They drift through the days enjoying each other, Dom writing music and playing the piano, Eve reading and wandering the property. Sabine, a local businesswoman, insinuates herself into Eve's life, questioning her about Rachel, Dom's wife: is she his late wife or his ex-wife?
Sabine causes Eve to doubt Dom, and he doesn't help matters as he becomes more withdrawn, almost cold. Eve wonders if the love affair is at an end. In alternating chapters, Eve's story and that of Bénédicte, an old woman who grew up on the property, unfold but don't intersect--until the pool at Les Genévriers is excavated and a dreadful discovery made.
This haunting novel is rife with brutal acts, lies, secrets and characters with murky motivations. Lawrenson is at her best writing about Provence: the lavender-filled fields; "mirabelles--the tart orange plums like incandescent bulbs strung in forest green leaves; the budding grapes; tomatoes ribbed and plump as harem cushions; lemon sun in the morning pouring through open windows." She evokes a sense of place that is irresistible. --Valerie Ryan, Cannon Beach Book Company, Ore.