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Upon her mother’s death, a girl (Winter) is sent from England to live with her grandparents in southwest Australia. There she determines that many things in her life � from her own life history to multiple deaths in Australia � are strange, unknown, unexplained and convoluted. Although this was in many respects a murder mystery (a genre of which I am not a big fan and not an appropriate reviewer), there was much more to this novel. The descriptions of the setting on the Australian beach were beautiful and tangible. The details of that setting, from the house to the ocean, were fully portrayed and compelling. The characters were nicely drawn as well. They were good and bad, and the reader never knew which part of a character’s personality was the person’s “true self�. Art was a theme as well, because several of the important characters were artists. The art they created cast an interesting spell over the novel. The effect of Winter’s difficult childhood (which included the loss of her mother and years of being uncared for) on her lifelong mental health was significant throughout the story. Although I did not figure out who the murderer was (until the novel disclosed it), I did find the multiple murder side of the novel to be disappointing and, for me, rather pointless other than for the purpose of keeping the reader guessing. However, I enjoyed the interesting characters and the very well done settings.