"[Kelly] takes readers to the Cape of the early 1970s. The narrator, a 12-year-old Wellfleet girl with eccentric ‘Me Decade’ parents—her mother a retired movie star and her father a candidate for Congress—is plunged beneath the surface of the idyllic summer setting when she discovers dark family secrets and witnesses a sinister crime she won’t soon forget."
"There was no putting down this book. Elizabeth Kelly’s riveting The Last Summer of the Camperdowns left me breathless."
"The plot unfolds like the Cape Cod season itself… beginning lazily, languidly, before heating up and morphing into a fast-paced thriller."
"Kelly’s novel is a coming-of-age meets a whodunit… A laugh-out-loud funny page turner."
Kelly's novel is a coming-of-age meets a whodunit—or maybe a whydunit, since the who is evident fairly early. The bright, snappy language generally serves the story well…the novel is a laugh-out-loud funny page turner.
The New York Times Book Review - Ayana Mathis
A wonderful novel is like an orchid: smooth, creamy, full of unexpected crevasses. The more you look at it, the more surprising it is. The Last Summer of the Camperdowns …is like that, giving us characters you've never seen before, worlds we never knew, crimes we never thought of. Of course, some of us raise horses for the fun of it and run for Congress and may be bona fide movie stars, but not too many, and as purely escapist literature, The Last Summer works beautifully.
The Washington Post - Carolyn See
Kelly’s raucous, deliciously creepy novel about the dysfunction of the über wealthy begins in 1972 as the hoity-toity Camperdown clan prepare for another summer of horseback riding, fox hunting, and hors d’oeuvres in their cushy Cape Cod enclave. Godfrey “Camp” Camperdown, running for a seat in Congress, hobnobs away while his ex-movie-star ice-queen wife Greer—the brawn and beauty behind the campaign—entertains the guests and their 12-year-old daughter Riddle James (named after Jimmy Hoffa), who narrates as an adult. The novel threatens to veer too predictably into Great Gatsby territory (long-buried secrets bubbling to the surface, a sticky love triangle, a sniveling neighbor’s single-minded obsession with breeding gypsy horses) but is saved by precocious Riddle’s dry-witted narration of events, at least until she witnesses a heinous murder and clams up. While what actually happened the night of the crime is made plain early on, Kelly (Apologize, Apologize!) builds suspense by withholding the perpetrator’s motivations and the characters’ knowledge of who did it until the end. When the truth finally emerges amid a whirlwind of flying accusations and shattered lives—in a climax that’s a touch too hurried compared to the book’s languid pace—no one, not even the creepy killer, escapes unscathed. And everyone, at least in part, is to blame. Agent: Molly Friedrich, the Friedrich Agency. (Jun.)
"Kelly’s second novel is a witty, suspenseful tale of murder, marital conflict and agonizing secrets…The exuberant story is transporting and delicious, a worthy summer read."
People Magazine - Robin Micheli
"Kelly has a deceptively low-paced writing style that nevertheless delivers a jolt at every turn. Pungent metaphors often collide and occasionally cancel each other out…. She keeps us on the edge without letting us fall into the gothic trap…. This atmospheric summer read will not disappoint readers looking for a great turn of phrase and a mesmerizing story."
The Barnstable Patriot - Barbara Clark
"The Last Summer of the Camperdowns is one of the most delightful beach books evah! It is the literary equivalent of a dozen Wellfleet oysters—salty, sweet, sublime."
"These vibrant personalities jump off the page individually, and the collective dynamic is as lifelike and scintillating as beautifully cast actors in an artfully directed play… the scenes and dialogue unravel organically, and razor-sharp witticisms tumble out effortlessly."
"Twelve-year-old Riddle James Camperdown witnesses a crime that will change her life and lives of those around her. A story about the family ties, the quest for status, and the secrets that kill."
"A novel for the awkward kid in all of us. Thirteen-year-old Riddle Camperdown, with her noisy red hair and retired movie star mother, is on the cusp of her whole life. When Riddle finds herself in possession of a terrible secret, the novel acquires a crackling tension that doesn’t ease until you’ve turned the final page. A pure pleasure read, The Last Summer of the Camperdowns will remind you of sweating glasses of ice tea, fireflies in the backyard, and lost innocence."
Cosmopolitan - Julie Buntin
"A wonderful novel is like an orchid: smooth, creamy, full of unexpected crevasses. The more you look at it, the more surprising it is. The Last Summer of the Camperdowns , by Canadian writer Elizabeth Kelly, is like that, giving us characters you’ve never seen before, worlds we never knew, crimes we never thought of. Of course, some of us raise horses for the fun of it and run for Congress and may be bona fide movie stars, but not too many, and as purely escapist literature, The Last Summer works beautifully… Really terrific fiction."
Rebecca Gibel has her work cut out for her in performing this novel, whose characters lack verisimilitude, to put it mildly. In Kelly’s world even people with “no money” have oceanfront Cape Cod estates with multiple horses in the stable. The plot hangs on a frightening secret a 12-year-old girl named Riddle is keeping for reasons the author doesn’t begin to make convincing. On the other hand, Kelly’s prose is snappy and aggressively clever, and she keeps the gothic plot moving at a good clip. Gibel gamely performs and even succeeds in giving some emotional cohesion to several minor characters. My favorite is Gin, the selfish, gossipy horse-obsessed bachelor neighbor whom she plays with a slight drawl and a tiny speech defect. Gibel has a lovely voice and may make the listen worth your while. B.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
A 13-year-old girl finds that keeping secrets can have mortal consequences in this scarifying follow-up to Apologize! Apologize! (2009). Kelly's new novel is just as scathingly witty as her best-selling debut but better plotted and even more emotionally harrowing, as narrator Riddle Camperdown looks back two decades to the disastrous summer of 1972. Her affluent family lives in Wellfleet on Cape Cod. Her father, Camp, a left-wing Democrat, is running for Congress. Her glamorous mother, retired film star Greer Foley, is far too self-absorbed to care much about the campaign and spends most of her time indulging in lethal witticisms indicating how tiresome she finds her husband and daughter--indeed, pretty much everything except her fascinating self. It's in the barn of Greer's chattering, equally narcissistic stooge, Gin, that Riddle overhears a mysterious scuffle and emerges from a stall to be menaced by sinister stable manager Gula, though he lets her flee to turn his attention to someone moaning in the tack room. The terrified girl doesn't tell her parents, and when they hear about the disappearance of Charlie Devlin, younger son of Greer's old flame Michael, it becomes even more impossible for Riddle to speak up, especially since Gula turns up periodically to hint at unspeakable consequences if she does. There's bad blood between Camp and Michael, dating back to their service in World War II as well as their rivalry over Greer, who still seems oddly intimate with the man who left her at the altar. A series of revelations about Michael Devlin's eldest son Harry's true nature and Greer's wounding breach of faith with her husband are doled out piecemeal, so the reader's growing comprehension mirrors Riddle's reluctant maturing. Kelly skillfully builds almost unbearable tension, slipping in plenty of dark laughs en route to a wrenching climax that leaves in its wake some painfully unresolved questions--just like life. More fine work from a writer with a rare gift for blending wit and rue.
