SUMMER ON HIGHLAND BEACH

An elite Black community in coastal Maryland learns that the mayor has a “secret love child.”

Having set her previous Summer Beach books in the enclaves of Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, and Sag Harbor, New York, The View host Hostin closes up shop in Highland Beach, a resort community founded in the late 19th century by Frederick Douglass’ son. According to its website, it is "residential only, does not offer opportunities for tourism and cannot accommodate visits from the general public." Hostin definitely conveys that attitude as her character Olivia Jones pays a hesitant first visit to the snooty town, whose mayor is her long-estranged father, Charles "CJ" Jones, whose reelection will be compromised by her arrival. (Olivia’s complicated backstory is explained hastily and will remain opaque to those who haven’t read the first two books.) She is also meeting for the first time her evil grandmother, Christine Douglass-Jones (that Douglass), a woman who sees the death of two of her three children as more a reputation problem than a cause for mourning. Don’t feel sorry for me, she tells an old enemy, "I have money, class, and I’ve traveled to places you’ve only dreamed of." Maybe this is meant to be a laugh line, but some of the wooden dialogue, the tabloid-type gossip about Frederick Douglass, and the oddly placed, uninspiring descriptions of people’s attire are not. In one laugh-out-loud moment, a deus ex machinacharacter storms into a town meeting “wearing an ankle-length persimmon dress.” No designer or anything! As in previous books, characters rely on therapy to deal with their messy lives and romances (Olivia has managed to screw up a good thing she had going in Sag Harbor). The wisdom of Olivia’s therapist, Dr. LaGrange, saves the day: “Life is a journey. You hit a milestone and then you move on to your next goal. The work never really ends. Nor should it.” This beach trilogy, however, should.

Lacks the zest of the earlier books and doubles down on the weak writing.