She Treads Softly: Dead of Summer

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Dead of Summer

Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell
7/22/25; 288 pages
Atria Books

Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell is a highly recommended atmospheric mystery full of soap opera vibes and characters with questionable integrity.

Orla O’Connor's best friend Alice disappeared from Hadley Island, presumed drowned, at age 15. Now Orla is returning to the New England island a decade after leaving to clean out the family's home to prepare it for selling. Next door is the decrepit, abandoned house where Alice lived which brings up memories and increases Orla's anxiety over being on the island. Even being on the island starts the gossip up again. It doesn't help that her old summer crush, David, is back at the Clarke estate with a girlfriend.

Faith knows she is lucky to have met her wealthy boyfriend David Clarke. He has invited her to spend the summer at his family's enviable estate on Hadley Island and she is sure he will be proposing to her soon. Once there, however, David seems to be working with his father all the time, leaving her to wander around the island on her own. She also hears about Alice's disappearance and is curious about what happened.

Henry Wright is a retired recluse who lives on his own island. He hasn't left his island since Alice disappeared because he was accused of being involved with her death. Now his hobby is watching the island through a telescope and recording all the activities he observes in his logs. He's been noticing and taking note of some strange things lately.

This is an entertaining melodramatic novel full of unlikable caricatures of different types of people you've seen before: tortured friend; status seeking young woman who is an outsider; privileged, wealthy son of a tyrannical father; potentially creepy peeper. Now takes these different types of characters and put them on an island where an extremely wealthy man has an estate and likes control. Have some characters behave badly. Give the young outsider some curiosity and provide some clues, town gossip, and another missing girl. Finally, add a few twists.

The narrative unfolds at an even pace and the island setting provides an isolated, atmospheric setting that can feel ominous. Henry observing events from afar assists in creating the foreboding tone. Chapters tell the story through the points-of view of Orla, Faith, and Henry. There observations worked together well to propel the plot forward. It's not a ground breaking novel, but it held my attention to the end.

Dead of Summer is a good choice for those who like New England island settings and soap operas. Thanks to Atria Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.