Beyond the Olive Grove by Kate Hewitt

I've read the scenario over a dozen times. Someone gets an unexpected inheritance in a far flung corner of the world (this time Greece) and you rush there to occupy, make a life for yourself, uprooting yourself almost completely. For me it sounds improbable but the fact that it is written about so much, it must be factual as well. Ava is in deep sorrow over her miscarriage. Her grief she feels is hers alone because her husband Simon comes across as cold and unfeeling. This she can no longer stand and her marriage is about to collapse. Inheriting a house in a Greek village from her grandmother who never ever spoke of her Greek ancestry, was unexpected and was the bolt hole she needed. That the house was closed for sixty years did not strike Ava as ominous. The story of Ava, her arrival in this tiny remote village, her attempts to make her house habitable and making friends with quiet reserved neighbours was not easy. Unravelling the past was worst. Just five people of her grandmothers generation survived and very few of them wanted to talk of the past. It was a bloody past filled with revenge and distrust, murder and an unforgiving one which traumatised those living even today. An interesting story told in two time lines outlining Ava's grandmother Sophia's days as a girl and then the present day as depicted in Ava's ti,e and her sadness and life as it was now. Sensitively handled a good read. Sent by Bookouture for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.