Cheek is a solid writer, that much is certain. I cannot say for sure whether I liked any of the characters or supported their actions, but I could not stop reading. This is a steamy novel, no doubt about it, and the unlikable characters make the sensuality seem that much more depraved and reckless in a 'can’t look away' kind of way.

What initially seems like a quick beach read quickly turns into something much darker. While a flash-forward technique at the book’s end feels like a bit of a cheat, it shows the repercussions of betrayal over decades. Creek is also good on the hypocrisies of the era, the double standards. The latter half of the book is given over to the affair, written brilliantly by Creek. Creek’s success is that the tension of his book lies not just in the promise of an affair between Henry and Alma but also in watching Effie, albeit through her husband’s eyes, draw ever closer to the hedonism. The eerie landscape that threatens to ruin the honeymoon turns into an lawless playground. In his debut Creek makes good use of the Cape’s emptiness in off-season. Their opening-up to each other is tenderly depicted by Creek, whose sensual writing brings immediate intimacy with his characters and their situation. Billed as a cross between The Great Gatsby and Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach, for once the marketing blurbs seem accurate, in plot and theme if not quite in terms of the writing.

Cape may chip cheek