Her Last Affair

The plot points slowly coalesce in Searles’s (Help for the Haunted) suspense novel, and everybody has something to hide. Skyla, a retired nurse, contends with macular degeneration and feelings of betrayal over her late husband’s infidelity. She rents out the cottage next to hers—both located in the shadow of the drive-in she and Hollis ran for nearly 50 years in upstate New York. The new tenant is a dream come true for Skyla: a cultured Brit named Teddy, who encourages her to confront her past. Meanwhile in Florida, as her 50th birthday looms, Linelle is contacted by Teddy, with whom she conducted a youthful affair when they both worked at a local theme park. They reconnect online and resume flirting until Linelle’s husband catches her taking a compromising photo. In New York, Jeremy, a loveless, embittered would-be writer, decides to look up the woman who broke his heart long ago in Providence. How these sad humans come together and what each one will do for love—including murder—is worth the slow start.