Katie Bishop, following her acclaimed debut The Girls of Summer, delivers a devastating sophomore effort with High Season, a psychological thriller that excavates the treacherous terrain of memory, privilege, and the lies we tell ourselves to survive. This ambitious novel weaves together two timelines—the sultry summer of 2004 and the present day—to explore how truth can be as malleable as clay in the hands of those desperate to reshape their narratives.
The story centers on the Drayton family’s opulent mansion on the Côte d’Azur, where seventeen-year-old Tamara Drayton drowns during her mother Evelyn’s birthday party. Twenty years later, when a TikTok true crime series resurrects the case, Nina Drayton—now twenty-five and the sole witness to her sister’s death at age five—must confront the fragments of her childhood testimony that sent babysitter Josie Jackson to prison.
The Poisoned Well of Family Secrets
Bishop’s greatest strength lies in her unflinching examination of how privilege operates as both shield and weapon. The Drayton family exists in a rarefied atmosphere where money doesn’t just buy comfort—it purchases silence, manipulates justice, and rewrites history. Evelyn Drayton emerges as a particularly complex figure, a woman whose desperate need for love makes her complicit in unspeakable acts. Her relationship with her children feels transactional, each interaction weighted with the currency of approval and conditional affection.
The character of Blake Drayton represents perhaps Bishop’s most chilling creation—a golden boy whose entitlement has curdled into something predatory. The author expertly crafts his descent from privileged teenager to someone capable of drugging and assaulting young women, revealing how toxic masculinity festers within systems designed to protect certain kinds of people. His relationship with Hannah Bailey, the working-class girl desperate to belong to his world, becomes a master class in manipulation and grooming.
Bishop handles the sensitive subject matter with remarkable nuance, never sensationalizing the violence while ensuring its impact reverberates through every page. The revelation that Blake used Rohypnol to assault both Hannah and his own sister feels both shocking and inevitable—a logical progression of his character’s moral corruption.
The Architecture of Trauma
The novel’s dual timeline structure allows Bishop to explore how trauma echoes across decades, shaping not just individual lives but entire communities. Nina’s journey from child witness to adult seeking truth becomes a meditation on the reliability of memory and the weight of testimony. The author skillfully demonstrates how a five-year-old’s fragmented recollections can be shaped by adult manipulation, leading to devastating consequences.
Josie Jackson’s wrongful imprisonment serves as the novel’s moral center, her story illuminating how class and prejudice can poison justice. Bishop avoids the trap of victimization, instead crafting Josie as a resilient woman who builds a meaningful life despite the years stolen from her. Her relationship with Nic and her work in marine conservation provide glimpses of healing and purpose that feel earned rather than convenient.
The TikTok true crime element adds contemporary relevance, exploring how social media can both expose injustice and commodify tragedy. Imogen Faye, the influencer @truecrimefangirl_2002, represents a new generation’s approach to historical crimes—sometimes insightful, sometimes exploitative, but undeniably powerful in its reach.
The Shadows of Perfect Prose
While High Season by Katie Bishop succeeds brilliantly in its exploration of complex themes, certain elements feel less fully realized. The novel’s ending, though emotionally satisfying, relies heavily on confession and revelation that strain credibility. The convenient timing of Blake’s video confession feels particularly forced, robbing the climax of some psychological complexity.
Some secondary characters, particularly the French investigators and legal officials, remain frustratingly underdeveloped. Given the novel’s criticism of the justice system that allowed a five-year-old to testify, more attention to these figures might have deepened the institutional critique.
The pacing occasionally suffers under the weight of the dual timeline structure, with some present-day sections feeling rushed compared to the meticulously crafted 2004 sequences. The novel’s strongest passages occur in those sultry summer scenes, where Bishop’s prose captures both the intoxicating beauty and underlying menace of the Côte d’Azur setting.
The Geography of Guilt
Bishop’s prose demonstrates remarkable maturity, particularly in her ability to inhabit different perspectives without losing narrative coherence. Her descriptions of the French Riviera feel lived-in and authentic, capturing both the region’s seductive beauty and its capacity to conceal dark secrets. The pink house becomes almost a character itself, its faded grandeur mirroring the Drayton family’s moral decay.
The author’s background in journalism serves her well here, as she navigates complex legal and procedural elements with confidence. Her portrayal of the media circus surrounding the original case feels particularly authentic, highlighting how tragedy becomes entertainment and victims become commodities.
Truth in the Wreckage
High Season stands as a worthy successor to Katie Bishop’s debut, demonstrating growth in both ambition and execution. While it doesn’t quite achieve the devastating emotional impact of The Girls of Summer, it succeeds as both a gripping thriller and a serious examination of justice, memory, and the price of truth.
The novel will particularly resonate with readers of Ruth Ware’s psychological thrillers and Tana French’s atmospheric crime fiction. Those who appreciated the class dynamics in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid or the dual timeline structure of Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell will find much to admire here.
Bishop has crafted a novel that refuses easy answers, instead forcing readers to grapple with uncomfortable questions about power, privilege, and the stories we tell ourselves about the past. High Season confirms her position as a significant voice in contemporary psychological fiction, capable of addressing serious social issues while delivering the propulsive plotting that readers crave.
For Further Reading
Readers drawn to High Season‘s exploration of memory and trauma might appreciate:
- The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse – for atmospheric alpine thriller elements
- The Guest List by Lucy Foley – for wedding party dynamics and class tensions
- The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman – for cold case investigation elements
- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty – for privileged families hiding dark secrets
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – for unreliable narrators and marriage deception
- In the Woods by Tana French – for childhood trauma affecting adult investigations
High Season by Katie Bishop ultimately succeeds as both an entertaining thriller and a serious work of literary fiction, proving that genre boundaries need not limit a novel’s ambitions or impact. Bishop has written a book that will linger in readers’ minds long after the final page, its questions about truth and justice as persistent as the Mediterranean sun that illuminates its darkest corners.
