WW2 crime mystery set in Canterbury, Kent (and London)
Dual time line thriller set on the COTE d’AZUR
26th September 2025
High Season by Katie Bishop, dual time line thriller set on the Côte d’Azur.
The novel is set in the sultry South of France, both in 2004 and in 2024. The Draytons pop down every year from London to their house – the pink house – set in beautiful environs. They are an upper crust British family, more nouveau than old money and Evelyn, the mother, several times divorced, was once an ‘it’ girl. Twins Tamara and Blake are twelve years older than their sister (by a different father). In 2004, during Evelyn’s birthday party on the 20th August, Tamara is found dead at 10.25pm floating in the swimming pool and five year old step sister Nina is a witness to her murder.
Hannah is the daughter of a hippie couple who run the local dive shop and she befriends Josie, who arrived in
France on the whim of her father; things for the family unfortunately soon go downhill. These two girls are of similar age to the twins, and Hannah, in particular, is desperate to hang out with the Draytons. But the issue of class is a huge, ingrained factor in any buddying friendship.
The story swings between the build-up to the death of Tamara in 2004 and the consequent fall out over the next twenty years for the various characters. We know that Josie was sentenced for a period in prison for the crime.
Stirring the pot is Social Media star @TRUECRIMEFANGIRL_2002, who is looking into Josie’s conviction, which she feels in unsafe, and also Nina’s part in the trial and the evidence she gave. A documentary is in the offing and all parties involved in the death have now been invited back to the South of France to take part and give their side of the story.
The author handles the various characters well (all pretty ghastly in their own way, to be honest), there are interesting takes on the consequences of actions. False memory, guilt, anger and dysfunction are just some of the themes in the novel, combined with relationship violence, adultery, sapphic drives, drugs, alcohol and class divides. I felt there were too many issues crowding into the storyline and no characters for whom one could really root.
The podcaster talks about Tamara’s “unaliving”, which is truly grim terminology, and you will also discover what “roofied” means. And the author writes about how people “had drank” and this is repeated several times throughout the book, which is an annoying editing oversight – it should, of course, by “had drunk”.
The novel is described as being set on the Côte d’Azur, an area of coastline, which generally stretches West as far as Toulon. There is mention of Evelyn taking herself off to Montpellier, so one might assume the “Pink House” is in the vicinity. This part of the coastline, however, is not the Côte d’Azur. And it definitely isn’t the French Riviera (as suggested in the Amazon blurb) which is much further East.
This is an interesting story, with various twists and turns, and it is fairly easy to keep track of the two time periods. For me, overall, there are just too many plates that need to be kept spinning, balanced with a superfluous – and at times unnecessary – revisiting of events.
I read this whilst in the South of France and enjoyed the reference points within the book, that matched up with where I was.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
Join team TripFiction on Social Media:
Twitter (@TripFiction), Facebook (@TripFiction.Literarywanderlust), YouTube (TripFiction #Literarywanderlust), Instagram (@TripFiction) and Pinterest (@TripFiction) and BlueSky(tripfiction.bsky.social) and Threads (@tripfiction)
Please wait...
