The 18th Hole

By Nicole Brun-Mercer

Celine's husband Richard has been brutally murdered with a three-iron on his Alpine golf course in the French Alps, yet she must fulfill her social obligations as family, friends, and acquaintances come to pay their respects. As she does so, she recalls the last time they spent together, playing a round of golf, and wonders how their life together-how her own life-could have possibly led her to this moment.Nicole Brun-Mercer melds elements of popular fiction, character-driven literature, and a psychological thriller in a shockingly satisfying marriage of form and content. Each chapter begins on the day of the funeral: a new guest or family member, a new memory, a deeper understanding of self and spouse. Traversing eighteen years of marriage through eighteen chapters, Celine draws nearer to both the truth of her husband's demise and the truth of her own life. By reliving her last round of golf with her husband, she begins to open her eyes to her triumphs, her failures, and the role her marriage to Richard played in it all. But with the only private investigator we have being Celine's conscience, can we trust the recollections and decisions of one of the suspects to provide a fair and balanced account of the events?With breakneck pacing and full of intrigue and almost unbearable suspense, Brun-Mercer's latest is a thought-provoking look at relationships and what drives us to accept less for-and from-ourselves. Almost as much of a subtle cultural guide to France as a murder mystery, she beautifully renders the country and the human soul with a profound minimalism that cannot be measured in page counts. Wonderfully affecting and delicately rendered, The 18th Hole is a provocative tale of love and murder, and the fairways that lead to both.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1463752547
• ISBN13: 9781463752545
• Release Date: December 2011
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.3"