Book Blurb:
On a beautiful summer’s night twenty years ago, troubled seventeen-year-old Tamara Drayton was found floating face-down in the pool of her family’s idyllic mansion in the south of France, leaving her twin brother, golden-boy Blake, to pick up the pieces of their shattered family. Also left behind was their sister Nina who, at six years old, became the youngest person ever to testify in a French murder trial. Because she’s the only one who saw what happened—who watched as her babysitter, Josie Jackson, pushed Tamara under the water, and held her there until she stopped breathing.
Didn’t she? Twenty years later, Nina’s memories have faded, leaving her with no idea of what really transpired that night. When a new true crime documentary about her sister’s murder is announced, Nina thinks this might be her chance to finally find out. But the truth always comes at a cost. Who will pay the price?
My Review: 3.5 stars
High Season by Katie Bishop was not a usual pick for me. I tend to avoid this type of thriller because they seem to get redundant. I was intrigued however, by the idea of a young child’s testimony in a court of law for something as significant as murder.
The two timelines worked really well in the novel. One timeline is in 2004, when Tamara drowned, and the other is current times in 2024 when a podcaster has opened her case to the public now that a documentary is being filmed. What most attracted me to the story is the case against memory. How can you trust a child? Her words put someone in jail for ten years. When Nina, now an adult, is back in France, she starts to remember that maybe it wasn’t Josie who pushed Tamara under the water? Memory is slippery and that hook is what kept me going through the novel.
I did find it a bit too long, but that didn’t bother me on the whole. The writing was fine and the pacing was good too. The audio narrator of this one made the listening an enjoyable experience.
Quotes I liked:
There are so many pathways in life, so many unknown versions of ourselves that we might be, that she wonders how we don’t all go insane with the possibilities.”
“She knows that people’s memories are the most accurate in the eleven months immediately after the event, and then become hazy afterward, complicated by retelling and rehashing a story.”
