Tigers in Red Weather

Critics Review

• ‘It’s hard to know where to start a review of this startling debut novel because Tigers in Red Weather is absolutely packed with plot . . . anybody who enjoys Mad Men will almost certainly like this book . . . heady, page-turning stuff — the intelligent beach read of the summer.’ Sunday Times

• ‘Postwar America, beautiful and damaged people, secrets and lies and passions and martinis and the smell of something rotting beneath the fragrance of summer . . . an immensely gripping and well-told tale of two generations . . . It is part of the considerable pleasure of this novel that much of it reminds you of other stories, in prose and film. You are on familiar but never stale territory, and you read on with the growing conviction that a nasty surprise lies around the corner.’ Guardian

• ‘What an unexpectedly brilliant read this is. It starts off all Stepford Wives and Valley of the Dolls and ends up somewhere in the territory of Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides or Donna Tartt’s The Secret History . . . This is an ambitious undertaking for a first novel but Klaussmann really pulls it off, turning an elegant period piece into a creepy psychological thriller . . . A wonderfully clever, chilling summer read.’ Independent on Sunday

• ‘Tigers in Red Weather yokes literary craftmanship to a strong, engaging plot . . . The stakes are raised with artful subtlety over the course of the novel . . . The final sequence, told by a relative outsider, is impressively disquieting and concludes this arresting debut with a flourish of ventriloquism’ Literary Review

• ‘A scintillating look at a gilded but dysfunctional family grappling with lies, secrets and conspiracies . . . The voices of the five main characters ramp up the tension with languorously graceful prose, perfectly mirroring the book’s long, dangerous summers.’ Marie Claire

• ‘The novel you should be tucking into your beach bag this summer is Klaussmann’s excellent Tigers In Red Weather . . . Flipping back and forth across a couple of decades, it gracefully tracks the currents souring the intoxicating cocktail of money, sex, heat, boredom and beauty that constitutes the lives of the wealthy on Martha’s Vineyard following World War II. With a conscious nod to F Scott Fitzgerald, it’s a clever, sensual thriller that combines a smidgen of Klaussmann’s family history with a clear-eyed perspective on the multi-faceted nature of families and the emotional duplicity of the rich.’ Metro

• ‘Two things set this enjoyably creepy book apart from your average beach read. The plot and pacing are expertly managed . . . But the real selling point is the writing, which is minimalist and evocative at the same time.’ Observer

• ‘Summers are made for novels like Liza Klaussmann’s debut, a sophisticated page-turner, where danger and pain throb in every tight-lipped silence, every casually cruel remark, every misinterpreted gesture . . . Hemingway[‘s] influence is apparent in the simplicity of her language and observations . . . I read it the first time in one sitting, and envy anyone about to start it, with that delicious pleasure ahead of them.’ Sunday Telegraph