Go Gentle

Semple (Where’d You Go, Bernadette) delivers an energetic caper about a woman who gets roped into blue-blooded family drama and a potential smuggling scheme. Among the terms of philosopher Adora Hazzard’s fellowship at the Lockwood museum in New York City is that she provide “moral training” to owners Layla and Lionel Lockwood’s tween twins. Adora, who is divorced, lives nearby in the famed Ansonia building with her surly 15-year-old daughter, Viv, where she has assembled a “coven” of fellow middle-aged single ladies who live on the same floor. The plot kicks into gear when Adora gives an extra ballet ticket to the mysterious David Ignatius “Digby” Beale, and the pair begin a romance, threatening to break the rules of her coven. Soon Digby reveals they met not by chance but because he was following her, and he wants her to deliver a sealed letter to Layla. Initially convinced Digby is attempting to recover a stolen artwork from the museum’s collection, Adora sets out to investigate, and a series of increasingly alarming misunderstandings ensue. Some readers will have trouble keeping up with the freewheeling plot, but Semple’s writing is as limber as ever (defining stoicism for Digby, Adora says, “It’s not Keep Calm and Carry On. It’s Change Your Perception So You Never Have to Keep Calm and Carry On”). There’s plenty to enjoy in this rollicking adventure. (Apr.)