Book Review - The Summer Party by Rebecca Heath

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Title: The Summer Party

Author: Rebecca Heath

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Aries

Publication Date:  5th January 2023

Rating: 3 Stars

An atmospheric psychological thriller about a glamorous family living on the coast of southern Australia. 2023's most addictive beach read.

A perfect family. A devastating secret.

Summer, 2000. In the tranquil town of Queen's Point in southern Australia, the Whitlam family marks the end of every season with a lavish party in their clifftop mansion. Here, clutching her first glass of real champagne, the summer breeze intoxicating on her skin, sixteen-year-old Lucy Ross is kissed for the very first time. And then, in the shadows of the rose garden, she sees something she shouldn't.

Winter, 2019. After two decades of silence, Lucy is back in Queen's Point. She hasn't planned on staying long. But when human remains wash up on the freezing beach, the police close the town. Unable to leave, Lucy is forced to rekindle old friendships – and examine old truths – she has long ago tried to forget.

As long-buried secrets start to surface, Lucy must decide. Will she confront the past and tell the truth? Or will she still do anything to protect the people she loves?

A glamorous, escapist psychological thriller set in Australia, perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty, A.A. Torre and Adele Parks.

This is a an ok psychological thriller that for the last quarter or so ramped up to completely unputdownable. 

For the end section I was fully engrossed, and it was a good payoff for the build up to that point. 

However I found myself not overly liking any of the characters and it felt as though the more I learnt about all of them the less I trusted any one of them.  Plus the regular swapping between the past and present day, seemed to confuse me a lot more than it normally does in similar books. 

In fact occasionally had to go backwards multiple page turns on my kindle just to check the chapter heading and timeline I was currently in. 

I enjoyed that the book was set in small town Australia, which makes a refreshing change, and it was interesting to see just how much power the Whitlam family really has over the entire area. And the three Whitlam children that Lucy admired back when she first met them, well they really are nasty pieces of work each and every one of them. But also troubled too.

The more I learnt about the victim the less sympathy I had for someone being killed, and I did want to discover who did it which kept me reading. As I say absolutely loved the finale, but the rest just didn't quite hit the spot as well as I would have hoped for I'm afraid. 

Thank you to Aries and Netgalley for this chopy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.