“I mostly remember the trial,” she said. “And the aftermath - being taken into a room and asked to draw what happened. I remember exactly what I drew. The pool. My sister - Tamara. Her name was Tamara. And her. Bending down, Pushing her under the water. Josie Jackson. She denied everything, of course. Said that I must have made the whole thing up.”
Those are some lines from chapter two of Katie Bishop’s novel High Season. The speaker, Nina, is telling a new boyfriend about her older sister Tamara who died in a pool the night of their mother’s birthday party.
Nina, who was five at the time, was the only eyewitness in what became a murder trial. Rosie, the accused, was Nina’s teenage babysitter, but also a friend of Tamara. Rosie is found guilty and serves 10 years in prison.
The story moves back and forth between 2004 and 2024. Nina has studied to become a child psychologist, hoping to heal from the traumatic experience and to more clearly remember what actually happened that fateful night.
The author slowly fills in details about the characters and their relationships to each other until the climax at the end of the book when she reveals who is actually responsible for Tamara’s death. The story is set in a resort town in the south of France, where the wealth disparity between the locals and summer people is vast.
As a fan of the book wrote, this book is a “tale of privilege, loss, and the slippery nature of memory.” If you’re looking for a mystery that involves deception by the wealthy and memory, then you must read High Season by Katie Bishop.
