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Tess Gerritsen, author of The Summer Guests

When former spy Maggie Bird retired to the seaside hamlet of Purity, Maine, she settled in for a quiet life with breathtaking views. But enemies from her past soon threatened to destroy everything. Maggie survived, thanks to her wits and the collective intelligence of the Martini Club, the circle of ex-CIA friends in her cocktail-sipping book club. Their handiwork, however, caught the attention of young police chief Jo Thibodeau. Now Jo and her neighborhood ex-spies have an uneasy alliance. After a teenager vanishes --- and Maggie’s neighbor becomes the prime suspect --- she joins the investigation, determined to prove her friend’s innocence. But the girl’s wealthy family pushes for an arrest. And when authorities discover a long-dead corpse in a nearby pond, the case becomes doubly complicated, with unthinkable ties to long-buried secrets.

The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen

March 2025

I realized the other day that lately I have been reading more stand-alone titles than series books. But I was excited to pick up THE SUMMER GUESTS, the second entry in Tess Gerritsen’s series that is set in the town of Purity, Maine, and features a group of ex-CIA agents who have settled there. They have a book club, they drink martinis, and they call themselves the Martini Club. They also are the bane of police chief Jo Thibodeau as they nose their way into crimes, bringing their unique set of skills. Jo tells them to “stay away” when a teen goes missing, but this only motivates them to help as much as they can.