Fiction The Last House on the Street

Diane Chamberlain: Headline Review, $33

Feisty white student Ellie defies her family and racially charged threats to join a 1965 civil rights campaign to give blacks the vote. As tensions build, especially with the Ku Klux Klan in the shadows, Ellie complicates matters by falling in love with a black fellow campaigner, irreversibly changing her life. Decades later, Ellie returns to town, crossing paths with single mum Kayla, who is tormented by strange happenings in the dream home she built with her late husband in Ellie’s childhood neighbourhood. Chamberlain deftly uses dual timelines to connect the pair. Threats, secrets and characters with a lot to hide ensure this powerful tale of racism, heartache, betrayal, forbidden friendship and love is a page-turner. CARINA BRUCE