Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons

Book Review by Cos Barnes

Anne Rivers Siddons’ “Burnt Mountain” is another low-country tale for which this author is famous. The novel’s characters are wealthy and live in gorgeous homes in the Charleston-Atlanta area. In this one, Siddons mixes in some supernatural drama and provides a surprise ending. As always, she exposes closet skeletons and skewered personalities.

It is the story of Thayer Wentworth, a tomboy by nature who does not follow the rules her mother lays out as does her obedient sister. Thayer finds companionship at summer camp, which is located on Burnt Mountain in northern Georgia, which was also the scene of the death of her father when she was a child. She also finds her first love there, but circumstances separate them for many years. Thayer is close to her grandmother, who eventually leaves her a lovely home, which she and her husband, Aengus, an Irish professor, enjoy until he becomes engaged in telling tales to the young boys at the camp and spends too much time there.

Dark secrets are revealed about the mother and the husband, some of them a little bit surprising. It is always a privilege to read about the privileged.