The Vipers
About this audiobook
Brought to you by Penguin.
On glittering Capri, anything can be a mirage. And one thing is true: no one holds a grudge like family.
The world was shocked by playwright Sarah Lingate’s death thirty years ago at an opulent,
white-washed villa on the island of Capri. Absolved of the crime, the Lingate family maintains that what happened that night was a tragic accident. And every July they return to Capri to prove it’s true.
This time, Helen Lingate - sole heir to the family fortune - has a plan. Tightly controlled by her father, she enlists the help of the family assistant, Lorna Silva, to free herself from her family’s stranglehold on her life. And yet, behind closed doors, the legendary Lingate family unity is at breaking point. Upon arrival at the villa in Capri, a anonymous gift awaits them: the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died.
In the aftermath, the paranoid, insular Lingates begin to unravel. As the investigation into her mother’s death is reopened, Helen begins to lose trust in everyone around her: her controlling father Richard, drug-addled aunt Naomi, aloof uncle Marcus, and even Lorna, whose past she realizes is frustratingly opaque. And as the family fractures, the long-hidden truth about that night and the secrets they’ve kept from one another boil to the surface - and they might not leave the island alive.
© Katy Hays 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
About the author
Katy Hays is the author of the international bestseller, The Cloisters. In addition to writing, Katy works as an adjunct Art History Professor, teaching rural students from Truckee to Tecopa. She holds an MA in Art History from Williams College and pursued her PhD in Art History at UC Berkeley. Her academic writing has been published by Ashgate, an imprint of Routledge.
Her fiction explores how far humans are willing to go to believe the unbelievable, strange-but-real worlds, and complex female friendships. When not writing, Katy is a skier, cyclist, trail runner, and reader. She lives with her husband and their dog, Queso, in the Sierra Nevada, California.
Find out more at www.katyhays.com
Instagram @heykatyhays
