Well, it's happening. We're in the last hours of summer. For me, the most bittersweet way to say goodbye is with Elin Hilderbrand's final Nantucket novel, the aptly entitled Swan Song.
Nantucket police chief Ed Kapenash is finally retiring. Featured in many a Hilderbrand tale, Ed has served as the moral compass of the island for decades. Still, he can't sail off into the sunset until he solves one last case. And it centers around glamorous newcomers Bull and Leslee Richardson. Nantucket doesn't know what to think when the unknown couple buys a mansion on doomed property. Spectacularly wealthy and gregarious, the Richardsons quickly become the It Couple, throwing one Bacchanalian bash after another. Still, there's something not-quite-right about them, something their live-in personal concierge, Coco, knows all too well.
Dazzling and seductive, haunting and poignant, Swan Song is Hilderbrand at her best. She delivers a riveting plot, poetic descriptions, and characters that we care about despite their many transgressions. But most of all, she reminds us that we're on a journey.
And that sometimes the sweetest season of life is the one that comes at the end.