Unseasonably Cold

Amy Ephron

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Book cover for Unseasonably Cold
Image for variant 9781958861936
Book cover for Unseasonably Cold
Image for variant 9781958861936

Unseasonably Cold

Unseasonably Cold

Amy Ephron

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Description

A socialite living in late-1930s New York City disappears without a trace in Unseasonably Cold, Amy Ephron's elegant, melancholy noir of secrets, misapprehensions, and deceptions.

Replete with beautifully observed period detail and sharply drawn characters, Unseasonably Cold is classic storytelling, a mystery crafted with an artist's eye. Rendered in Ephron's lovely, austere literary prose, it is utterly worthy of the era it depicts, when the polite mask of high society's mannered calm disguised the turbulence just beneath; a mirror for the terrible events swirling in Europe at the lead-up to the Second World War.

"Altogether intriguing-haunting, even-and I couldn't have enjoyed myself more."

- Benjamin Dreyer, author of the New York Times bestseller Dreyer's English

"Atmospheric. Propulsive. Captivating. Pure Amy."

- Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The View from Lake Como

"I was enthralled from the first page to the very last. A fascinating, compelling read that I thought about for a long time after. It's not a book to be missed."

- Jill Santopolo, New York Times best-selling author of The Light We Lost

Critical Reviews

Praise for Unseasonably Cold

"New York, 1939: A year has passed since Jane Henry, a popular columnist and heiress to a publishing fortune, vanished without a trace. No one's taken the news quite so hard as her best friend, Liza Simon, the last person Jane lunched with before her disappearance. Liza has never been able to forget one of the last things Jane said to her: 'Billy...has turned unseasonably cold.' . . . Told in quick chapters that add to the sense of mystery and fragmented memory, this story will appeal to readers of crime fiction and literary fiction alike. A spare historical thriller about trusting the wrong people." -Kirkus Reviews

"The brilliant Amy Ephron has written a story steeped inmystery, suspense, and glamour set in Art Deco chic New York City in 1939. A socialite, surrounded by the wealthy, nefarious, and artistic, goes missing. Atmospheric. Propulsive. Captivating. Pure Amy."

- Adriana Trigiani, best-selling author of The View From Lake Como

"I was enthralled from the first page to the very last. Amy Ephron's Unseasonably Cold is a fascinating, compelling read that I thought about for a long time after. It's not a book to be missed."

- Jill Santopolo, New York Times best-selling author of The Light We Lost

"A socialite disappears in late-1930s New York City, and welcome to Unseasonably Cold, Amy Ephron's elegant, melancholy noir of secrets, misapprehensions, and deceptions, aristocrats and bohemians, Park Avenue and Greenwich Village. Replete with beautifully observed period detail and sharply drawn characterizations. It's altogether intriguing - haunting, even - and I couldn't have enjoyed myself more."

- Benjamin Dreyer, New York Times best-selling author of Dreyer's English

Praise for other Amy Ephron Books

"An elegant love story . . . as exquisitely sculpted as fine Porcelain." -Entertainment Weekly on A Cup of Tea

"The narrator talks out of an existential corner of her mouth in tones sometimes reminiscent of Philip Marlowe, sometimes of the Joan Didion of Play It as It Lays. The voice it introduces as a real and unusual power." -Madison Smart Bell, New York Times, on Cool Shades

"Amy Ephron scores with her glamorously gritty second novel, Bruised Fruit." -Angela Janklow, Vanity Fair, on Bruised Fruit

"You could, I think, make the case that Amy Ephron is our Wharton . . . Her books are not so much written as carved. Every word counts . . . the story is set in 1927, and so, very much bubbling under the Society plot, is the reckless mood of that era. Alcohol. Drugs. Homosexuality. These add a Fitzgeraldian spice to the strict moral tale that is Ephron's legacy from Wharton . . . It turns out that quite a lot can happen in 214 pages - that is, when the writer is a master storyteller like Amy Ephron." -Jesse Kornbluth, on One Sunday Morning

"Reading Amy Ephron's new novel Carnival Magic feels like stepping into a different literary landscape entirely. Gone are the themes of extreme fantasy or acute realism that polarize YA novels in 2018, and in their place is a much softer, otherworldly take on childhood mystery, reminiscent of classics such as The Secret Garden or A Little Princess." -P. Claire Dodson, Teen Vogue on Carnival Magic

"In a series of short takes, much like a soap opera format, Ephron delivers a wickedly accurate satire of trendy, self-indulgent upper-middle-class life in L.A . . . The ensuing events are funny and poignant; Ephron's rapier is sharp, but her touch is light." -Publishers Weekly on Biodegradable Soap

Publishing Information

Publisher: Sager Group LLC
Pub date: 2026-04-01
Length: 230 pages

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