“I’ve been estate-sale adjacent since I could add and give change, spending weekends at a table, wrapping and bagging purchases.”
Emma moved back to her small hometown of Harrow, Massachusetts, where her parents still live. She helps out with their estate-sale business, and when they decide to retire to Cape Cod, Emma takes over the business (which she renames “Estate of Mind”) and their house.
She hears about a large house being put on the market, so she quickly reaches out to see if the owners would let her handle the estate sale. It turns out that this wasn’t just any house—it was a bed and breakfast as well as a brothel. (The customers used different sets of stairs.) Given all of the furnishings and other tchotchkes in the house, Emma expects quite a windfall, but she doesn’t count on the stress that dealing with the madam, her ex-husband, and their daughter will bring.
There are many other things going on in Harrow. Emma begins a secret romance with Luke, the chief of police, whom she went to high school with. Her boarder, Frank, a retired high school teacher, begins dating Luke’s widowed mother. And then there’s all the craziness related to Frank’s late wife…
Elinor Lipman’s books always have complex and memorable characters, and often are quite humorous. There’s a lot going on here but it’s just such a sweet, fun read. And boy, given all that’s going on in the U.S., it’s exactly what I needed!
The book will publish 2/11/2025.
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