☼Summer Reading ~ Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum

 

Destination ....Fire Island ☼

Michael Joseph
8 June 2023

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

You are cordially invited to summer on New York State's idyllic Fire Island.

Thirty miles of golden sand:

No traffic. No tourists. No trash.

The city elite gather here every year, trailing kids, their nannies, wine and seafood imported from Manhattan: hard workers need their playtime.

Take the Parkers and the Weinsteins. Lauren and Jen hold sway on the beach and the tennis court. Their husbands are childhood friends bearing grudges as deep as they are secret.

Their lone single friend, Rachel Woolf, is looking to meet her match, whether he's the new tennis pro - or someone else's husband. She's not picky.

And while this season starts out quietly as any other, it soon changes when beneath the boardwalk, a body is found.

☼My Review..

The rich people arrive at their summer residences in Salcombe on Fire Island every year. It is a place where old money mixes with new and where beach side properties have been held by generations of the same family. Into this potent mix comes several families whose annual tolerance of each other is about to be stretched to limit. Bored and dissatisfied with each other the husbands and wives all seem to have something to hide not just from each other but also from the gossipy nature of an island resort where everyone knows everyone else’s business.

The story opens with a discovery of body under the boardwalk an event which leaves Salcombe reeling as crime is rare but as we soon discover no-one is above suspicion. Bad Summer People, with its whip-smart observations about the minutiae of island life, is done so cleverly that it feels like you are waiting in the shadows as this plot takes it’s inevitable trajectory towards tragedy. It’s been a while since I read a story where all of the central characters are totally unlikable but all credit to the author for making each of them so compelling. They are all rich, bored, selfish and self-obsessed and yet so utterly fascinating I couldn’t stop reading and felt a real sense of satisfaction when all the myriad strands came together so cleverly.

Bad Summer People, filled with an abundance of secrets and lies, is a fabulous summer read.

About the Author

Emma Rosenblum is Chief Content Officer at Bustle Digital Group. Prior to BDG, Emma served as the executive editor of Elle, the editorial director of Bloomberg Pursuits, a senior editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, and a senior editor at Glamour. She began her career at New York Magazine. Bad Summer People is her first novel.

Twitter @EmmaRosenblum #BadSummerPeople

@MichaelJBooks