High Season

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

In the heat of summer, the past can become hazy. . .

For twenty years, Nina Drayton has told herself that she must have seen her sister, Tamara, being murdered by the family babysitter – Josie Jackson. That she doesn’t remember it because she was five, and amnesia is a normal trauma response.

But now, with the anniversary of Tamara’s death approaching and true crime investigators revisiting the case, Nina finds it harder to suppress her doubts. Returning to her family’s sparkling villa on the Cote d’Azur for the first time since the murder, she wants to uncover more about the summer that changed so many lives. Because if she was wrong, then she sent an innocent woman to jail – and the real killer is still walking free.

Lyrical, suspenseful and sultry, this dark examination of the fragile nature of memory is vivid and thought provoking, with all the tension and heat of a moody summer evening.

Praise for Katie Bishop and High Season
'A beautiful, intricate mystery that tests the strength of memory and time . . . Complete with an exotic setting, flawed and complex characters, and spellbinding prose, High Season is an absolute masterpiece.'
- Sara Ochs, author of The Resort

'I found myself devouring this tale of privilege, loss, and the slippery nature of memory. The setting is so perfectly rendered that you can almost taste the saltwater'
- Ella Berman, author of Reese Witherspoon Book Club-pick Before We Were Innocent

'Beautifully written, transportive, and thought-provoking...sizzles with suspense.'
- Lucy Clarke, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Castaways, on The Girls of Summer

'Startling...packs an incredible punch.'
- The Times

'Lures you in then shakes you up.'
- Nikki May, author of This Motherless Land

© Katie Bishop 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

Crime fiction rarely explores the afterlife of someone convicted of murder and Katie Bishop’s sensitive novel reveals the impact of class on assumptions about guilt and innocence
Sunday Times
The writing brilliantly creates the hedonistic atmosphere of the South of France and it’s an education in TikTok culture with a very unguessable outcome
Daily Mail
Katie Bishop is a master storyteller. In High Season, she weaves a beautiful, intricate mystery that tests the strength of memory and time and the harsh consequences of both. Complete with an exotic setting, flawed and complex characters, and spellbinding prose, High Season is an absolute masterpiece.
Sara Ochs, author of The Resort
High Season ripped me out of a reading slump as I found myself devouring this tale of privilege, loss, and the slippery nature of memory. The setting is so perfectly rendered that you can almost taste the saltwater, and the characters are so sensitively drawn I often had a knot in my stomach as I read late into the night. Bishop writes unbelievably beautifully about the complex relationships forged in youth, and the fragility of memory in the aftermath of tragedy.
Ella Berman, author of Reese Witherspoon Book Club-pick BEFORE WE WERE INNOCENT
I devoured this sparkling, slippery, dark and delicious book in days. Katie Bishop weaves an aching, impossibly tangled, but gorgeous tale of youth, hope, memory and desire. As compelling as it is subtle, intelligent and complex. With a backdrop of glittering privilege, it offers both sheer delight and a gut thump of dread.
Hazel Barkworth, author of SUNSTROKE
True crime meets the Côte d’Azur in this layered, insightful novel that transcends its absorbing premise. Mystery and secrets abound at the Pink House, but it’s Katie Bishop’s vividly drawn characters and their web of entanglements that will keep you turning pages. High Season handles its themes deftly—about trauma and memory, class and girlhood, family and forgiveness—while also offering a nuanced critique of true crime voyeurism. Propulsive, escapist, and sharp.
Emily Layden, author of ONCE MORE FROM THE TOP
[A] stunning thriller
My Weekly
I read the novel in three sittings. This author has such a clarity on young female friendships and class divide, which really added to the atmosphere
Prima
With brilliant writing and a clever plot, this is a quality read
Sun on Sunday, Fabulous Magazine
A dark, perfect summer read
That’s Life Monthly

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