Katie Bishop’s sophomore novel, High Season, stands as a masterful psychological thriller that delves deep into the murky waters of memory, family loyalty, and the dangerous weight of secrets. Following her debut The Girls of Summer, Bishop demonstrates remarkable growth as a storyteller, crafting a narrative that is both intimate and expansive, exploring how a single traumatic event can ripple through decades.
A Story That Grips from the First Page
Set against the sun-drenched backdrop of the French Riviera, High Season by Katie Bishop alternates between two timelines twenty years apart, weaving together the events of a fateful summer night in 2004 and the present-day consequences that continue to haunt the Drayton family. The novel opens with the death of seventeen-year-old Tamara Drayton, found floating in the family pool during her mother’s birthday party. Her six-year-old sister Nina becomes the youngest person ever to testify in a French murder trial, identifying the family’s babysitter, Josie Jackson, as the killer.
Twenty years later, a true crime documentary threatens to reopen old wounds, and Nina finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew about that night. Bishop skillfully employs this dual timeline structure, allowing readers to piece together the truth alongside the characters while maintaining an atmosphere of mounting dread.
Character Development That Resonates
Bishop’s greatest strength lies in her character development. Nina, now twenty-six, emerges as a compelling protagonist wrestling with the burden of being the star witness in a case that defined her entire family’s trajectory. Her evolution from the traumatized child to a young woman desperate for answers feels authentic and emotionally resonant.
The supporting cast is equally well-developed. Blake, Tamara’s twin brother, carries his own complex guilt and secrets that Bishop reveals with careful precision. Josie Jackson, the convicted babysitter, returns as a figure both sympathetic and mysterious. Even secondary characters like Hannah Bailey and the various documentary makers feel fully realized rather than merely functional.
Perhaps most impressively, Bishop manages to make Tamara—who appears only in flashbacks—feel like a living, breathing character whose loss reverberates through every page.
Writing Style and Atmospheric Excellence
Bishop’s prose is both elegant and accessible, capturing the languid heat of the French countryside while maintaining the tight pacing essential to a psychological thriller. Her descriptions of the Drayton family’s villa and the surrounding landscape create an almost tangible sense of place that serves as both paradise and prison for the characters.
The author excels at building tension through seemingly mundane moments—family dinners become exercises in carefully maintained facades, and casual conversations carry the weight of unspoken truths. Her ability to shift between the innocence of childhood perspective and the complexity of adult understanding showcases remarkable narrative versatility.
Themes That Cut Deep
High Season by Katie Bishop explores several weighty themes with remarkable nuance. The unreliability of memory, particularly childhood memory, forms the central tension of the novel. Bishop doesn’t simply question whether Nina’s testimony was accurate; she examines how trauma, family pressure, and the passage of time can reshape our understanding of events.
The novel also serves as a sharp critique of privilege and its ability to obscure truth. The Drayton family’s wealth and social status create layers of protection that Bishop systematically strips away. The contrast between the glittering surface of their lives and the darkness beneath proves particularly effective.
Family loyalty emerges as another key theme, with Bishop exploring how far people will go to protect those they love—and whether such protection ultimately becomes its own form of harm.
Minor Criticisms and Areas for Improvement
While High Season by Katie Bishop succeeds on multiple levels, it occasionally suffers from pacing issues in its middle section. Some of the documentary-related subplot feels slightly underdeveloped compared to the rich family dynamics at the story’s core. Additionally, certain revelations in the final act, while satisfying, might benefit from more subtle foreshadowing earlier in the narrative.
The novel’s exploration of social media and modern true crime culture, while relevant, sometimes feels surface-level compared to Bishop’s more nuanced examination of family psychology and trauma.
Comparison to Contemporary Works
High Season by Katie Bishop joins the ranks of excellent family psychological thrillers alongside works like Tana French’s In the Woods and Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects. Like those novels, Bishop’s work succeeds because it prioritizes character development and emotional truth over plot mechanics alone.
The novel’s examination of unreliable narrators and childhood trauma also brings to mind works like Emma Donoghue’s Room, though Bishop’s approach is distinctly her own.
Similar Reads for Fans
Readers who appreciate High Season by Katie Bishop might enjoy:
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides – Another psychological thriller questioning the nature of truth and memory
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman – For those interested in the investigation aspects and ensemble cast dynamics
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty – Similar themes of family secrets and the facades people maintain
In the Woods by Tana French – Atmospheric crime fiction with complex character psychology
The Girls by Emma Cline – Another novel examining how childhood experiences shape adult understanding
Final Verdict
High Season represents a significant step forward for Katie Bishop as a novelist. While her debut The Girls of Summer showed promise, this sophomore effort demonstrates mastery of the psychological thriller form. Bishop has crafted a novel that works both as an engaging page-turner and a thoughtful exploration of how the past continues to shape the present.
The book succeeds because it never loses sight of its emotional core—the relationships between family members and how love, guilt, and loyalty can become inextricably intertwined. Bishop’s examination of how children process trauma and how adults struggle to understand their own past selves feels both timely and timeless.
For readers seeking intelligent psychological thrillers that prioritize character development and emotional authenticity over simple plot twists, High Season delivers in spades. It’s a novel that will linger in readers’ minds long after the final page, prompting continued reflection on the nature of truth, memory, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.
Katie Bishop has established herself as a writer to watch in the psychological thriller genre, and High Season stands as compelling evidence of her growing mastery of the form. This is essential reading for fans of character-driven suspense and anyone interested in nuanced explorations of family dynamics under extreme pressure.
Recommended for readers who enjoyed: Tana French, Gillian Flynn, Ruth Ware, and Alex Michaelides.