3.5 stars - a Gothic murder mystery featuring a opulent Florida mansion, just the setting and book type makes this right up my alley. The story unfolds across two timelines in Marbisa, the house that rich Northerner Anna moves into with her husband and later belongs to Cuban emigre Carmen's sister and brother-in-law. Cleeton does a solid job building the atmosphere and unspooling the mysteries across both timelines while exploring issues of class/wealth and race, including through shared characters like a brusque detective and mysterious household staff. That being said, although I liked both, neither Carmen nor Anna were that memorable as characters and their voices sometimes blended together, so I felt like more could have been done to make them distinct beyond their basic biographical details. While the climax verged on soapy, I was very happy with the ending overall, especially

Spoiler

the revelation that Anna was alive with Michael and that Asher is not a killer and is treating Carmen well.