Title:

The Summer Guests

Author:

Tess Gerritsen

Category:

Mystery / Thriller

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

October 1, 2025

he Summer Guests is the second book in a series called The Martini Club, following The Spy Coast. The premise is that four ex-CIA agents, all in their sixties, have retired from their spy jobs to live quiet and stress-free in the seaside town of Purity, Maine. They call themselves the Martini Club because they get together for pot-lucks, book clubs and liberal tasting of hard liquor. They want a peaceful retirement, but no place on earth is free from crime, so when trouble rears its head, these veteran agents cannot help but use their experience and skills to involve themselves in solving the town's mysteries. The story focuses on Maggie Bird, once a field agent, now a chicken farmer. A grey-haired little old lady, easily ignored by everyone, but Maggie's wits are as sharp as ever.

The problem in this book involves the wealthy Conovers family. They own a huge mansion on the shores of Maiden Pond, though they only occupy the place during the warm summer months (thus, the year-round Purity townsfolk refers to them as "summer guests"). The family has gathered for a ceremony to spread the ashes of the patriarch, George Conover. Coming to the ceremony is the younger son, Ethan. Ethan brings his new wife, Susan, and her daughter, Zoe. Zoe is fourteen, and depicted as a reliable, outgoing trusting teenager who loves to swim. Zoe calls herself a mermaid, and she quickly dons a swimsuit and dives into Maiden Pond.

But Zoe fails to return from a visit with a newly made friend, Callie Yount. Zoe's mother, Susan, undergoes the worst fears that a parent can know - is her daughter abducted? Did some maniac lure her into remote backwoods cabin? Even worse - might she now be dead? Susan calls 9-1-1 and the acting chief of Purity Police, Jo Thibodeau is called to the Conover mansion. Jo asks the standard questions, but no, Zoe would not have run away. No, Zoe did not use drugs or alcohol. No, Zoe did not have a secret, older internet boyfriend to lure her away. The four retired CIA agents routinely monitor the police radio, so they immediately are aware of Zoe's disappearance and they spring to action. Police Chief Jo finds them a nuisance and would like to banish them entirely from the case, but too often the insights that the Martini club members offer turn out to be valuable clues in the case of Zoe.

The book primarily tells the story by focusing chapters on three main women: Susan, the frantic mother of Zoe; Jo, the young but capable police chief; and Maggie Bird, ex-CIA operative who is used to sifting through clues and knows how to proceed with investigations. Naturally, there are suspects a plenty. The most likely culprit is Luther Yount, the father of Callie - he was the last to see Zoe alive. After Zoe's visit to Callie's place, Luther claims to have driven her back home, dropped her off at the driveway leading up to the Conover mansion - but did he really? Unfortunately for Luther, his appearance is exactly what Hollywood imagines a child predator would look like. Luther is a huge hairy guy with unkempt clothing. He is actually an ex-engineering professor, but Luther looks like a nut case who camps out in the backwoods. The Conover's push for his arrest.

Could Zoe's disappearance be part of some larger conspiracy? The book opens with a tragic event in Purity fifty years ago: Sam Tarkin, a local carpenter, drove his van into three random tourists, killing them, and then shot a Purity police officer before he himself was killed. Now why would an event like that be included in The Summer Guests unless it tied into the present day mystery of Zoe's disappearance. Or is it just a big red herring?

There are surprises and discoveries, each of which seem to point to a different suspect. The book is a a quick read, I finished it in three rainy days when I couldn't go bike riding. There is a bonus short story at the end of the hardback edition, in which Lee Child collaborated with Tess Gerritsen to concoct a tale where Jack Reacher finds himself in Maine on Maggie Bird's chicken farm.

This was a good read. Hopefully there are more books in the series.