Help me remember a book: Likely a murder story, and the crescendo of the story was a village fair on an island in a river??

[TheWhiteCakePendleton]

I think there was an island in a river and there were a couple of houses on the island and different family members lived in different houses... Maybe the protagonist moved back into her grandmother's house on the island? And there was an aunt. They got a boat backwards and forwards from the mainland to the island.

And the big crescendo of the story took place when everyone was going to some sort of fair or event at night, with torches or lanterns.

It might have been a murder story (because that's what I usually read) but I feel like there was a love story too...

Probably something pretty mainstream. Any ideas?

It sounds very Anne Cleeves. Is it the Shetland one where they are celebrating Up Helly Ah?

Oh crikey, I've read this. I'm trying to think of more details.

Is it Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield? A bit supernatural about a missing girl but it’s set on a river and there is a village fair.

I don't think it was in Shetland
Definitely wasn't Once upon a River - though that looks really good.

I think it was quite an easy read...

Was it Sixteen Trees of the Somme? by Lars Mytting? Sounds quite like it to me.

I'm pretty sure it's Liane Moriarty, The Last Anniversary https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1282954.The_Last_Anniversary

Set on a island, with a big party as a climax, there's a murder mystery in the past and it's intergenerational. I read it a few years back and I enjoyed it.

Yes, that's it!!

You beat me to it! I LOVE this book, it's my favourite one of hers.