Beyond Summerland

New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lecoat returns with a spellbinding story about secrets and lies in a small community recovering from war, and the two young women at the center of a volatile mystery.
The German soldiers called it Summerland, more of a holiday playground than a strategic wartime stronghold, with its beautiful beaches, rocky coves and endless sunshine. The irony wasn't lost on the residents of Jersey in the Channel Islands. But though the occupation is over and the Germans have gone, tensions rise as the small coastal community looks to punish any locals suspected of collaborating with the enemy.
Nineteen-year-old Jean Parris is still adjusting back to normal life when news of her father's death in a German prison for having an illegal radio reaches her and her mother in Jersey, but grief turns to rage when a description of the informant points to a woman named Hazel, whose apartment overlooked her dad's shop. Although Hazel denies her involvement in Philip Parris's arrest, she had reasons for wanting Jean's father gone.
Soon the groundswell of anger over Hazel's rumored betrayal takes on a life of its own, but as much as Jean initially wants to blame her, clues start to suggest there were other more sinister factors at play. Then when Hazel discovers Jean's own ruinous secret, the women's stalemate becomes an unexpected bond in the face of frenzied calls for justice from their families and neighbors. But Jean's need to know the truth about her father may destroy everything she once believed.

Jenny Lecoat was born in the Channel Islands where, only sixteen years earlier, Nazis had deported members of her family to concentration camps for resistance activities. Following an early career in stand-up comedy and writing features for magazines and newspapers, she became a screenwriter. Her feature film Another Mother's Son, about her family's experiences during the Occupation, was released in the UK in 2017. The Girl from the Channel Islands is her first novel.