Sharp mystery set on FIRE ISLAND

20th June 2023

Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum, sharp mystery set on Fire Island (a barrier island off Long Island).

There has been a bit of a hoo-ha about this novel. The author has created Salcombe, a fictional village on Fire Island which is deemed to be modelled on Saltaire, a village which the author apparently knows very well. The locals are not best pleased by her rendition, as some of the antics, details and people have felt rather close to home. Saltaire has largely flown under the radar but residents are worried now that other people will discover the delights of the island, and The Daily Mail suggests that “There are fears that the book threatens to ruin that by making it a summer hot spot” 

Every Summer the good moneyed folk of New York head to their country retreats, where they spend the Summers from Memorial Day to Labor Day generally just loafing about. The author has focussed on a group of regulars who have gathered – as they do every year – in Salcombe, where the new tennis coach is the talk of the proverbial town. In this village the men measure themselves “by their net worth and the women by their tennis games”. It is, by and large, a sort of Center Parcs for the wealthy, where entertainment is on tap, conviviality is a daily option and gossip is endemic. There are little trikes and bikes to navigate the boardwalks and carts to ferry supplies; there are no cars on the island.

There is a distinct hierarchy, with the people, who have family ties to Fire Island going back generations, leading the posse. There are observers who watch and lurk, others who feel it is their business to regulate relationships and disseminate the interactions they observe. Affairs are happening, business deals failing and bitchy bullying aplenty. We know from the outset that someone has died by the end of the Summer sojourn, but who that person is and how their death has come about remains a mystery until the end.

The novel really does have a lot of characters to keep tabs on, although the main players do rise to the surface and capture the reader’s attention. The number of people who amble through the pages does, nevertheless, feel a little daunting and it can be a pressure to keep track of them all. In then main, they are unpleasant folk to spend time with, although her depiction of the people is savvy and sharp. To be honest, the author creates a very unattractive scenario, thus, quite why New Yorkers fall over themselves to spend their time competitively jostling with their neighbours for a whole Summer season is really beyond me.

There is a good sense of place in the story and I read this novel on the beach in a day, and that was a great way to enjoy this story.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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