You remember vacations, right? When you got to leave your home, on your own or with your darling family, and pack into a car or plane, and head for a bustling vacation destination, with gloriously crowded beaches and bustling restaurants and expeditions and adventures.
Okay, so, next year, we hope.
But just to remind you, vacations do not always turn out the way we plan. Those missed connections, and delayed flights, creepy hotel rooms and bad clams and sunburns. Rain. (Just trying to make you feel better.)
For writers, though, people on vacation is a perfect set up. You take the fish out of their home waters and plop them in a brand new setting with unfamiliar people and unfamiliar language and unfamiliar locations and unfamiliar — cue scary music — customs. And no one at home will miss them — because they are on vacation.
Jack Torrance took his family on vacation in a remote hotel so he could write his novel. And a Stephen King reminds us, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
And what if you were one of the vacationers that fateful summer in Amity? The time (in the movie at least) they needed a bigger boat? Peter Benchley knew the way to ruin a day at the beach.
Plus, people tend to forget who they are on vacation — which is partly the point of it! We happily give up our regular lives to have a new experience. We simply assume it’s going to be a good experience. But what if it isn’t?
What could be better material for a novel? Everyone you meet is a stranger.
And vacation is fraught even when it’s spent with best friends. When you read a book description that says “three couples decide to get away from it all at a secluded lake house.” Well, what do you think is going to happen?
In my new thriller The First to Lie, one of the key turning points comes when a young woman on vacation takes a sailboat ride on the Chesapeake Bay. Choppy waters, one beer too many, and her whole world changes.
So now, while we are essentially trapped at home this unexpectedly horrible summer, here are some other novels that may reassure you that staying home is a terrific idea.
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Tom Ripley’s assignment — his job — is to go ‘on vacation’ to luxe and lovely southern Italy and bring entitled playboy Dickie Greenleaf back home to New York. But Italy is so pretty, and having money is so much fun, and Dickie is so darn gullible. Tom Ripley knows what he wants and has figured out how to get it. This is classic Patricia Highsmith — wry, sardonic and terrifying.
The Last Flight by Julie Clark
This is one of those books where writers like me think — what a fabulous idea! (And then: I wish I had thought of that.) Two strangers plot to take a (permanent) vacation from their troubled lives, but when they meet, ticketed and screened, in an airport bar, they concoct a terrific idea of how to perfectly reach their goals. They’ll switch identities. Yay, Julie Clark. Such a page-turner. The ultimate airplane book. (Even if you’re not on an airplane.)
The Last Guest House by Megan Miranda
It’s never a good thing when the summer people arrive in town, and the talented Megan Miranda skillfully mines the “us and them” nature of a tourist-burdened community that needs the visitors — but loathes them. Can two young women bridge the social gap and remain best friends forever? It’s a Miranda book — so, sorry, no way. The weapons of wealth and power are unsheathed in this stylish twisty thriller that explores friendship, memory and loyalty.
A Talent for Murder by Andrew Wilson
The real-life Agatha Christie famously took a Christie-esque vacation of her own one summer. It was such a private affair, however, that for a while, no one knew where she’d gone. The brilliant Andrew Wilson, mixing fact and storytelling, dares to reveal where the queen of mystery may have been vacationing — and exactly what she was really doing. Clever and hilarious and kinda … possible.
Almost Missed You by Jessica Strawser
Jessica Strawser twists the term “family vacation” to new levels. When the blissfully matched Finn and Violet take their young son on the family’s first vacation, it’s all a perfect day at the beach — until Finn takes their child and vanishes, leaving not a trace of them in their hotel room. All of our assumptions are turned on their heads — just as in real life, we think we know who to root for. But what happens when someone decides to take a chilling side trip of their own?
Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
One summer month, one house, one family. One fateful night in the past. And many, many secrets. This J. Courtney Sullivan favorite is from 2012, but the sun-drenched, lobster-rich collision of “you can’t choose your family” dysfunctional relationships remains both nostalgic and endearing, mixing moments of laugh-out-loud irresistibly with heartbreak.
The Middle of Somewhere by Nanja Yoerg
You don’t have to convince me not to go hiking, but if that’s your thing you might want to hit the trails in a book with Sonja Yoerg’s emotionally burdened Liz Kroft. The gorgeous but challenging John Muir trail seems like the place to step out on her own and leave her past behind. But then the boyfriend insists on accompanying her. And then the storms arise. And then — the Root brothers. The descriptions of the Sierras are gorgeously realistic. But if there is a next time, Liz might stay home.
He Started It by Samantha Downing
Word to the wise: no matter how much money your eccentric grandfather has promised you in his will, do not, I repeat, do not agree to go on a family road trip to get it. With disturbing roadside attractions, skeevy bars, unexplainable car trouble and zero-star motels, Samantha Downing has written a super-intense, crazy-scary vacation from hell. You will be so happy you canceled your reservations.
So, hey. Like I said. Like Dorothy said, when she came back from vacationing in Oz. There’s no place like home. And it’s always safe inside a book.
