Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell

Years after her best friend mysteriously disappeared from a remote New England island, a young woman returns in search of answers.

Orla O’Connor hasn’t been to the isolated New England enclave of Hadley Island since she graduated from high school a decade ago. As a teenager, her best friend Alice disappeared from its shores without a trace—but with plenty of rumors. Now Orla returns to her family’s beachfront home to clean it out before her parents sell it. The island and her best friend’s empty house next door are stirring up memories she would like to avoid.

Then there are the locals, always gossiping and watching Orla’s every move. Worst of all, David, Orla’s childhood crush and son of a wealthy Manhattan family, is back for the summer with his new, impossibly pretty girlfriend, Faith.

Meanwhile, local Henry hasn’t left his house since Alice disappeared, in an attempt to let the accusations against him die down—except they never have. Orla’s return has shaken him, and lately he’s been seeing strange things through his telescope: shadowy figures walking on the beach in the middle of the night and a light on in an upstairs window of Alice's long-abandoned childhood home.

When another person on the island disappears, Orla, David, and Henry find themselves pulled into an eerie mystery that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

 Then:  

Alice and Orla are neighbors and best friends, growing up together and dreaming of how they will someday attend college and share an apartment in New York. A rift forms between them when Orla develops a possessive crush on David, the boy from a wealthy family, and Alice becomes more secretive. On the night of a huge party, Alice disappears. Some assume she drowned, others think she was murdered. Her body was never recovered, but gossip and rumors are all aimed at Henry, a local man who everyone thinks is odd.

Now: 

Henry has become a recluse, locked away with his wife in a home they have never left since the accusations first started. Orla has returned to her childhood home to prepare it for sale. David is back to take over his father's business with his new girlfriend Faith in tow. At first, Faith is thrilled at the invitation to spend the summer with David. But his strange behavior and obnoxious father, combined with the mystery of a missing girl, have her questioning everything.

Told from multiple points of view, it seems that every character is spinning their own web of lies, deceit and secrets. The plot moves slowly at first but it gradually pulled me all the way in to this twisty mystery. I was most engaged with Faith's point of view as she was the only one who was an outsider to the island and so brought a fresh perspective.  Dead of Summer is a perfect beach read. 

4 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Atria Books for the invitation to read an e-Arc

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