Maggie Bird’s ‘book group’ is an unusual one – a group of retired spies living an anonymous life in the seaside town of Purity. And this summer they plan little more than ‘reading’ (whilst sipping martinis), and some gentle birdwatching.
But trouble is just around the corner as the summer guests arrive.
For acting Police Chief Jo Thibodeau, summer brings its own problems – packed streets, bar brawls, petty theft. And now, a missing teenager down by the lake.
When their good friend becomes a prime suspect in the girl’s disappearance, Maggie and her Martini Club must put down their binoculars and roll up their sleeves. Leaving Jo to deal with not only a powerful family desperate for answers, but a meddlesome group of retirees.
Can Jo and the Martini Club find a way to work together, as they uncover one of the deadliest scandals their small town has ever seen?

‘The Summer Guests‘ is the second book in Tess Gerittsen’s new series about retired CIA agents trying to live a quiet life in the small town of Purity in rural Maine. 

The plot of the first book, ‘The Spy Coast‘ was driven by the things that Maggie Bird, a spy turned chicken farmer, had done before she retired. Her past catches up with her with deadly results and she and her friends have to come out of retirement to keep Maggie alive long enough for her to find out who is trying to kill her and why. It was a good spy thriller, told in two timelines, that shared the traumatic events that led to Maggie leaving the service and retiring to Purity while establishing that she and the rest of the Martini Club are still people to be reckoned with, even in their retirement. The first book also introduced Jo Thibodeau, Purity’s acting Police Chief. She realises that Maggie and her ‘book club’ are more than they seem to be as they are constantly at least one step ahead of her in working out what’s going on. 

‘The Summer Guests‘ took a different tack. It was a thriller about an investigation looking for a missing girl that Maggie et al got involved with because Maggie’s neighbour is suspected of abducting and harming the girl. What followed was a clever mystery with themes about family secrets, rich versus poor, summer people versus locals and the corrosive effects of sibling rivalry. It was a good mystery that was made richer by the discovery of possible historical links to the CIA’s covert mind control experiments in Project MKUltra. 

I had a good time with the book. I enjoyed the mystery and the growing relationship between the oldsters in the Martini Club and Jo Thibodeau. Within the context of an entertaining mystery, I thought the book had some interesting things to say about the abuse of power, the mindset of powerful people who have never been held to account and how family loyalties can become toxic

I’ll be looking out for the third book, ‘The Shadow Friends‘ when it comes out in January 2027.