The Beach Trees

The Beach Trees is a 2011 novel by Karen White. Utilizing a dual narrative split between the present and the past, White explores the bonds of family and friendship as well as the way geographical location affects the events and courses of people’s lives.

The narration alternates between Julie Holt, a young woman from present-day Massachusetts, and Aimee Guidry, an elderly woman living in New Orleans. The novel opens with Julie traveling to the airport with Beau, the son of her recently deceased best friend Monica Guidry. Julie has spent most of her life haunted by the disappearance of her younger sister, Chelsea, when she was just twelve years old. The rest of her family has given up, but Julie is crippled by guilt and still obsesses over finding Chelsea. Julie has just lost her job at an auction house in New York City, which is where she met Monica. Monica suffered from a heart condition and died at the age of twenty-eight; she named Julie guardian of her five-year-old son and willed her the Biloxi beach house she owned, called River Song.

When Julie and Beau arrive at River Song, they discover that the house was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. As directed by Monica’s last instructions, Julie tracks down a woman named Ray Von, who gives her a valuable portrait of Monica’s grandmother painted by a famous artist named Abe Holt—Julie’s great-grandfather. Ray Von also informs Julie that Monica’s family lives nearby in New Orleans. Julie decides to travel there to introduce Beau to his extended family and find a place to stay.



She meets Trey and Aimee, Monica’s brother and grandmother. They are devastated to learn that Monica has died, and Julie discovers that Monica never told her family where she lived or if she was even alive, which reminds Julie of her own painful experience with Chelsea. They also tell Julie that Monica stole the painting and that there were rumors that Aimee’s grandmother ran away with Abe Holt, since she disappeared. Julie and Aimee like each other immediately, and Julie is invited to stay with them. Trey, who co-owns the beach house, is less happy about this, but he agrees to help Julie rebuild River Song.

Aimee tells Julie stories about her own life, going back to the 1950s, when she was herself a young woman. Her family lived next door to the Guidry family, and she met and fell in love with both Wes Guidry and his brother Gary. The Guidry family had many secrets, and Wes was also romantically linked to a woman named Lacy. Wes’s mother and father were embroiled in an unhappy marriage in a time when divorce and scandal were much more important than in the present day. Aimee’s mother was mysteriously murdered.

The story then switches back and forth between present and past. In the present, Monica and Trey work on the house and investigate Monica’s disappearance, falling in love as they do so. In the past, Aimee recounts the events that lead to the disappearance of Caroline Guidry. Aimee marries Gary, but never loses her feelings for his brother, Wes. Mrs. Guidry is a closeted lesbian, and when her affair with a local woman is revealed to her husband, she becomes angry and threatens to leave him and make her orientation public, which enrages him. Wes drives to his parents’ house, and Mrs. Guidry says something to him that pushes him over the edge, and he drives his car over his mother, killing her. Lacy witnesses the murder, and Wes marries her some time later to ensure she keeps his secret.



Aimee later reveals to Julie that her mother and Caroline Guidry were lovers, and that Mr. Guidry murdered her mother as a result of the affair. The affair with Abe Holt was a lie devised to cover up the murder. Aimee made the mistake of giving the painting to Monica and telling her the lie; Monica was intrigued and began to investigate, eventually discovering the truth and fleeing her family because she realized she’d been lied to.

Aimee reveals that Wes later left Lacy when he felt she wouldn’t turn on him. He then married Aimee, and they were happy for a while.

In the present, Julie is informed that a body has been found in Massachusetts that might be Chelsea. She is both relieved and horrified that the mystery of her sister’s disappearance might be done and that closure could be at hand. She travels home to view the body, but it turns out to not be her sister after all. Julie reflects on the lessons she’s learned from Aimee and from her work on River Song—that you can always rebuild and start over no matter has happened to you. Aimee’s life was in shatters, but she moved on and built a life.