Dead of Summer

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 house next door, abandoned after her family left in grief, 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.

“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 CROSS MY HEART and THE FAMILY PLOT

“If you like tense, gripping beach reads about rich people behaving badly–you’ve come to the right place. The deeply engrossing DEAD OF SUMMER features a dark secret on a wealthy New England island that refuses to stay buried. Maxwell’s trademark sparkling prose, juicy characters, and twisty plot will keep you racing to the final page.” – Julia Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of The Writing Retreat