At the water’s edge, by Sara Gruen

A rather silly book.  The cover, a brooding woman’s face against a highland loch background, makes it look more literary than it is – a more honest cover would feature a hunky open-shirted Scot clutching her on the shore with a storm approaching in the background.  Maddie and her husband, Ellis, along with best friend Hank, have brought disgrace to their wealthy Philadelphia families at a drunken party and Ellis has basically been thrown out of the house.  To redeem themselves, the trio set off – in the teeth of WWII on a boat – for Scotland and Loch Ness, where they hope to restore Ellis’s father’s good name.  The latter had photographed the Loch Ness Monster years before, but it was exposed as a fake.  Ellis and Hank appear able-bodied, but have been declared unfit for service by color-blindness and flat-feet respectively.  Arriving at the alarmingly primitive lodging, they begin their quest.  There is the requisite surly innkeeper with a secret, stock faithful servants, and a lot of sturm und drang.  Really just a melodrama.  354 pp.