The Sisters Mortland (2006)

Three young sisters — gorgeous, shallow Julia; fierce, enigmatic Finn; and slight, insular Maisie — are spending the summer with their mother and grandfather at a former convent in Suffolk, England, in 1967, when a bizarre accident befalls one of them. More than 20 years later, still affected by the outcome, its witnesses sift through muddied memories and long-hidden secrets to unearth what exactly happened that fateful day in ''the summer it all went wrong.'' Sally Beauman effectively sets up this haunting gothic tale, but at 432 pages, she at times gets lost in a slick labyrinth of plots, raising more questions than answers. Still, Mortland succeeds as an absorbing mystery that'll have you turning pages until the very end.