High Season

• Author: Kate Bishop
• Genre: Mystery/Thriller
• Publication Date: August 12, 2025
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (digital version)/Macmillan Audio (audio version)

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for giving me access to both a digital and an audiobook version of this in exchange for an honest review.

Never speak of that summer.

On a beautiful summer’s night twenty years ago, troubled seventeen-year-old Tamara Drayton was found floating face-down in the pool of her family’s idyllic mansion in the south of France, leaving her twin brother, golden-boy Blake, to pick up the pieces of their shattered family.

Also left behind was their sister Nina who, at six years old, became the youngest person ever to testify in a French murder trial. Because she’s the only one who saw what happened—who watched as her babysitter, Josie Jackson, pushed Tamara under the water, and held her there until she stopped breathing.

Didn’t she? Twenty years later, Nina’s memories have faded, leaving her with no idea of what really transpired that night. When a new true crime documentary about her sister’s murder is announced, Nina thinks this might be her chance to finally find out.

But the truth always comes at a cost. Who will pay the price?

Set over two unforgettable summers two decades apart, High Season is a dark, tense exploration of the nature of memory, the enduring power of truth, and all the gray areas in between.

Somehow I missed this author’s debut, and decided that this one sounded too good to not try. It has all the elements that I enjoy seeing in a mystery: a troubled teenager, a rich family rife with secrets, and a potentially unreliable narrator in young Nina. After being approved for the ebook, I was also approved for the audiobook. I principally read this on audio, only occasionally referring to the digital version.

Alix Dunmore did a great job with all of the different voice tones and accents found in the south of France, where there is overlap between ex-pats, vacationers, people in search of work, and people who happen to live in this area of the world. I was impressed by Dunmore’s ability to convincingly portray such different characters. 

On to the story: I’m a sucker for a murder mystery situated in a vacation spot, and this one scratched that itch. All of the elements above are seamlessly woven together to create a dual timeline tapestry, where the secrets of the past have the potential to shatter the present. 

The story winds up being told between two timelines twenty years apart, and through the eyes of basically all the major characters at some point throughout the book. Initially, we are introduced to Nina, who has such a major impact in the early timeline despite how small of a role she actually played in that storyline. After receiving an email from a popular podcaster about an upcoming documentary about her sister’s murder and her testimony, expressing interest in a possible interview with her if she was willing. For the first time in a long time, she decides to head to the family’s old vacation mansion in the south of France to celebrate her mother’s birthday. 

It throws the entire family dynamic off hardly at all at first, just encouragement from her brother Blake, and then mild surprise muted by alcohol from her mother. But as Nina gets more and more curious about why she couldn’t remember that night any longer, and becomes willing to work with this podcaster to find out what really happened to her sister, her presence and actions come with a high cost for going against the family policy to never speak about that summer.

I really enjoyed Nina’s character as an adult. She has just become a child psychiatrist, and is starting a new job in the very near future. Making a rash decision to travel to France instead of preparing for the new job, Nina allows us to see the family in all its dysfunctional glory. I wasn’t impressed with really any of Nina’s family members—they’re self-absorbed, privileged, entitled, and mostly obnoxious, with the exception of Nina, who has a lot more self-awareness than the rest of her family.

Josie has spent twenty years in jail for the murder of Tamara Drayton, convicted with the testimony of a six year old Nina. She’s released and trying to make her way in a world where she has limited options and few friendly faces. The more of her that I got to know, in both timelines, the more I found myself liking her. She takes a fresh start when it is offered to her, and opens her up not only to friendship and support, but potentially a love interest. 

The prior timeline also kept me riveted, as the characters and their actions unfolded over the course of one summer that changed the lives of everyone in contact with the events of a single fateful night. As expected, there were endless twists in the story, but I was indeed surprised at how everything played out in the end. It also offered more perspectives from characters who aren’t as prominent in the later timeline. 

Overall, this is a great mystery/thriller and I’m so glad that I got the opportunity to read and review this one in advance of release. The vivid, realistic, and often painful-to-watch choices make the characters more relatable, and all the questions that come up throughout the reading are tied up neatly in a beautiful bow at the end. I especially appreciated watching the characters grow and become better versions of themselves, while others have their choices or futures taken away from them. But by the end of this book, I felt like I had experienced not just one summer in the south of France, but two—without ever leaving my house. This is the kind of book that’s a perfect beach read.

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