Wow. This is the perfect summer read, taking place over the summer holidays where a teacher becomes enamoured of a more upwardly mobile social group with devastating consequences.
Natalie, her husband Ed, and teen daughter Molly all live in a flat in Elm Hill, both adults are teachers and, to supplement their income, Ed plans on taking tutoring lessons over the holiday.
Natalie lives a very rigid and ordered life, the narration is from her perspective as she quite happily sneers over the re-opening of the local lido, by sometime celeb, Lara.
She has lived in the posher part of Elm Hill for the past 2 years without crossing paths, and Nat's seemingly erratic reaction to the publicity that Lara, and teen daughter ,Georgia,are getting, pre-empts a female friendship unlike any others she has known.
The difficulty is, since toddlerhood, Molly has been terrified of water.
The unbelievably helpful and glamorous Lara loves that Nat doesn't try and suck up to her , and offers to help with hypnotherapy to shake Molly from the grasp of her phobia.
The swims at the lido become more frequent, and spill over into the real world where Ed begins to tutor Georgia and she and Molly become tentative friends.
The friendship groups develop in a haze of alcohol fuelled parties, sunshine, swimming and louche behaviour which Ed thoroughly disapproves of.
But, having lived so rigidly by the rules, can Nat step outside her comfort zone without the terrible child that she was rearing it's ugly head?
And who , exactly , is going to pay the price for her deep dark secrets?
What I loved about this novel is the interplay between the beginning of the holiday when the sun filled weeks stretched ahead with endless possibility, versus the last day of August, Nat's birthday, and as yet unidentified tragedy which occurs.
As you peel back the layers of Nat's life and her sense of order with Ed, combatting with her bohemian sessions with Lara, you find yourself alternating between willing Nat on, and also deriding her for being a bit selfish.
But is that the fault of society for being so insistent on women of a certain age 'staying in their lane'?
Why shouldn't she reach out beyond her small circle, and best friend Gayle who joins her in mocking what they refer to as 'The Noblesse'?
It shows, to me, just how women can be trapped by the expectations on them from certain quarters and how, no matter how hard you try, just like the swimming pool, life may look calm on the surface, but the weight of the water has the power to crush you.
A 5 star summer read in this reader's humble opinion!

Perfect summer read. Loved living vicariously through the characters lives. Slow burn but very intriguing read.

I enjoyed this book to a certain extent, but to be honest I probably would not recommend it. Probably not quite enough of a surprise element.

This authors works are well loved by me.

But to read this book from my backlist challenge I thought I’d listen to it on audio.

Oh my. That was the worst mistake I made. The narrator got on my nerves and her voice grated in the end. The pitch, power was so mundane I got bored.

I managed until halfway. Then when home I picked up the book. It was better to read it myself but by that time my interest had waned somewhat.

So 3* from me. Which does disappoint me.

Oh I loved this book I couldn't put it down.
The twists and turns throughout the book kept me hooked from the first few pages and will keep you guessing right to the end.
Have a read you won't be disappointed.
5 stars from me.