The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen

 

When a young girl goes missing and her neighbour is the main suspect retired spy Maggie Bird and her friends use all their skills to help the local police find the real culprit.

The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen sees a welcome return to The Martini Club, a group of spies who have retired to the small town of Purity in Maine.  While I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the series, The Spy Coast (review here), I felt that this second book was a cut above. By keeping the story local we got to see more interaction between the characters and a glimpse at the subtle ways in which the skills and knowledge of the retired spies can be utilised.

A cry for help from Maggie's neighbour has the group springing to action. Luther Yount looks like something that has just walked out of the forest but Maggie knows he's a retired professor with a gentle nature, all he wants is a quiet life and the perfect surroundings to raise his teenage granddaughter. Suspicion falls on Yount as he was the last person to see the missing girl, unfortunately, his alibi is a little vague so Maggie and her friends spring into action to help clear Luther's name.

We see the group utilise all of the skills they honed in their careers to uncover clues, usually a step ahead of the local police, and sometimes discover things the police missed in their search. Acting police chief Jo Thibodeau is constantly frustrated by the abilities of Maggie and her friends and irked that no matter how many times she tells them not to get involved they ignore her. 

There is a menacing feeling throughout the story, mixed with a lot of dry wit. During the search for the missing girl remains are found, leading to another investigation and adding to the sense that something sinister is happening in a place so quiet and peaceful that locals don't lock their doors. The police are at a loss trying to identify the remains, but Maggie and her friends are dogged and refuse to give up. What they discover is shocking and has huge implications for lots of people.

The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen will be published on 27th March 2025 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Transworld Books for a review copy.

Author Details

International bestselling author TESS GERRITSEN began to write fiction whilst on maternity leave as a physician. She published her first novel in 1987 and has since sold over forty million copies of her books in forty countries.

Her series featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the television series Rizzoli and Isles, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.

Now retired from medicine, she lives in Maine and writes full time.