Dead of Summer

By Jessa Maxwell

Book Overview

"If you like tense, gripping beach reads about rich people behaving badly--you've come to the right place." --Julia Bartz, New York Times bestselling author

Years after her best friend mysteriously disappeared from a remote New England island, a young woman returns in search of answers in this atmospheric and scintillating thriller from Jessa Maxwell, nationally bestselling author of the "deliciously entertaining" (Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author) The Golden Spoon.

Faith finds the extravagant ring on the first day of what is to be a summer of luxury. David Clarke, scion of a billionaire family and her boyfriend, has brought her to his "cottage" for the season on pictersque Hadley Island. Marriage admittedly wasn't Faith's plan, but the luxury is hard to resist, especially for someone like her.

But beneath Hadley Island's sun-soaked glamour lie old betrayals and buried secrets: a man cast out and living alone at sea's edge, and David's childhood friends--two girls, one who died at his family's Fourth of July party, and another who fled to New York, never to be seen again. When another young woman goes missing, it becomes clear that while the wealthy love Hadley Island for its seclusion, small communities never forget, and bodies long thought gone have a nasty habit of returning with the tide.

"Dead of Summer has everything you could want in a vacation thriller: a haunting disappearance, an atmospheric coastal setting, sinister secrets, suspicious characters, and billionaires behaving badly. This is Jessa Maxwell's best yet--I devoured it in two days" (Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot).

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1668070391
• ISBN13: 9781668070390
• Release Date: July 2025
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Dark summer ahead!

It was a nicely quick summer dark book to read. With short chapters and three view points (Faith, Orla, and Henry) that gave a good wide range view of the mysteries that happened on Hadley Island with the missing and the supposedly drowned girls, amid lavish parties and many summer tourists that visit each year. Props for the eerie setting (the abandoned houses, giant empty mansion, Henry's hobby with his telescope and of course rich older men that are slightly off) and the isolation of the island where some might think they can get away with anything if they have enough money. I can't say I was surprised by how it turned out but it still made for a fun read that I sped through for the satisfaction of an ending where wrongs are righted and maybe this time the missing girl could be saved and the correct people punished. So, if you are looking for an interesting quick read, then this book would be a good choice and certainly would get you in the mood for summer, though hopefully without any bodies or big crimes committed.