THE VIPERS

A Getty-rich oil family experiences an infamous tragedy in the early nineties -- a horrific death while the family vacations on the island of Capri. Thirty years later, at the same villa, a second death causes them to lose control of the private and public persona they have fought bitterly to maintain. And when the mask finally slips, no one is who they seem, not even family.

For thirty years, playwright Sarah Lingate's death has been magazine fodder. And for thirty years, her husband, Richard Lingate, has lived under the suspicion that he got away with murder. That hasn't stopped Richard or his brother Marcus -- heirs to vast and historic Lingate oil fortune -- from returning to the site of Sarah's death: a Moorish, whitewashed villa on the island of Capri. Absolved of the crime, the family maintains that what happened that night was a tragic accident, and every July they come back to prove it's true. But behind closed doors, the legendary Lingate family unity is at a breaking point. And when the Lingates arrive on the island, three decades after Sarah's death for their annual vacation, a gift is waiting for them: the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died. Helen Lingate, sole heir to the Lingate fortune, wants one thing: revenge. Tightly controlled by her father and convinced her family is responsible for her mother's death, Helen plans a crime to incriminate and extort her father and uncle. But when the staged event turns into something real and brutal, and the investigation into her mother's death is reopened, Helen realizes that she may have once again trusted the wrong person. In the aftermath, the paranoid, insular Lingates begin to unravel. And as they fracture, the long-hidden truth about that night and the secrets they've kept from one another bubble to the surface. On glittering Capri, anything can be a mirage. And one thing is true: no one holds a grudge like family. Katy Hays is a writer and adjunct art history professor in California, where she teaches rural students from Truckee to Tecopa. She holds an MA in art history from Williams College and pursued her PhD at UC Berkeley. Having previously worked at major art institutions, including The Clark Art Institute and SF MoMA, she now lives with her husband and dog, Queso, in Olympic Valley, California. The Vipers is her second novel.