In the golden summer of 1914, Jean-Marc Montjean, recently graduated from medical school, comes to the French village of Salies to assist the village physician. His first assignment is to treat the brother of a beautiful young woman called Katya Treville. As he and her family become friendly, he realises they are haunted by an old, dark secret...but he can't help falling deeply in love with Katya. Jean-Marc is warned by Katya's brother that she is delicate and that he should curb his affections, but he is young, hopeful and in love...and certain that Katya returns his affections. When Jean-Marc learns that the Trevilles are planning to leave the village forever, he insists on a final meeting with Katya. That meeting and the events that follow turn what was an idyllic romance into a deeply unsettling nightmare. Katya's secret is revealed in a thrilling tale that is part love story and part psychological thriller, whose chilling climax will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

Author Biography

Trevanian was a shadowy figure. In his lifetime, he is said to have written under at least five different pseudonyms in at least five different genres, although he is probably best known for the spy thrillers The Eiger Sanction, The Loo Sanction and Shibumi and the highly acclaimed autobiographical novel The Crazyladies of Pearl Street. His reluctance to grant interviews, of course, made the true extent of his oeuvre difficult to quantify even in his lifetime. What is certain is that he was born an American named Rodney Whitaker, he spent much of his adult life in the French Basque country - where The Summer of Katya is set - and he died in 2005 in the west of England.