The Summer House Murder
Ava Roberts
Crooked Lane Pub.
April 2026
The Summer House Murder by Ava Roberts is about the relationship between three sisters and their cousin. The story is narrated from the perspectives of Esme, Regina, Piper, and Alexis, weaving together two timelines: one from the past and one in the present. It is a domestic murder mystery.
The cousin, Alexis is the character that the mystery revolves around. She is an enigma because some readers will root for her, while other will find her most unlikeable as she causes problems between the sisters while she is being raised within their household.
The story begins with sisters Esme, Piper, and Regina going to their remote summer house on Lake George on their annual visit. Each has their own families to deal with plus their own secrets to hide. Esme, the oldest sister, is desperate to keep up appearances after discovering her husband’s infidelity with their nanny; Piper, the middle child, has a four-month-old baby boy and is too tired to keep playing peacekeeper to her siblings. Regina, the youngest, is a sarcastic rule breaker with a secret to hide that could cost her everything.
After tension boils over into an ugly fight late one night, the sisters go off in separate directions. Like most of their blowouts, they think they’ll cool off and resume normality the next morning. Only this time when dawn comes, a young woman’s body is discovered in the lake. As a criminal investigation narrows in on their family home, it becomes clear that the sister’s web of lies and secrets is inextricably linked to the woman in the lake.
The sisters want to make sure they are not considered a person of interest. Even as they are doubting one another, they try to work together hoping their secrets are not revealed.
In the story the sisters’ personal secrets are as compelling as the murder mystery. This has family drama filled with poisonous family dynamics, deeply buried secrets, and morally ambiguous characters with long held grudges and some resentment. Readers will be guessing to the very end the murderer.
Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?
Ava Roberts: I wanted to do a remote setting within a family vacation. It came to me where there would be three sisters with very distinct personalities.
EC: How would you compare the three sisters?
AR: Esme has the traditional older sister type A organized personality with a splash of perfectionism and without much empathy. She has some narcissistic personality. Piper, the middle sister, has a lot of anxiety and is someone who wants to fit in. Being at the vacation home has her bringing up memories from the past, which is compounding her issues. Regina, the youngest, is very sarcastic, with a ‘me against the world personality,’ and resents her older sister Esme. All three sisters are hiding something from each other and themselves.
EC: How would you describe Esme?
AR: She is selfish, most like her mom, judgmental, feels entitled, competitive, and concerned about appearances. She is emotionally constricted.
EC: How would you describe Regina?
AR: She is passive-aggressive, edgy, proud, angry, and likes to put people down. Her humor is her edge and defense mechanism.
EC: How would you describe Piper?
AR: She has post-partum depression. She panics, feels invisible, a worrywart, feels she cannot do anything right, paranoid, and cannot stand up to her sisters.
EC: What is the role of Alexis?
AR: She is their cousin who lived with them briefly. Alexis wishes she could be a part of this trio of Howard sisters. She wants to belong but doesn’t. She is defiant, has a huge rivalry with Esme, devious, gutsy, revengeful, unhinged, and has rage. A lot of readers told me they did root for her although some do not like her at all.
EC: What about the husbands in the story?
AR: The best was Pipers’ husband Paul, who was very helpful and looked upon her as an equal partner. Greg, Esme’s husband, left a lot to be desired and was unfaithful. Regina’s husband, Bryce, was a neutral figure.
EC: What do you want to say about Brigit, the nanny of Esme?
AR: She was supposed to be close to the family, but Esme felt betrayed by her.
EC: Next book?
AR: I think the door was left open a little bit for a sequel, time will tell. The next book is another large extended family dynamic, set probably in Martha’s Vineyard.
THANK YOU!!
