Bad Summer People

Emma Rosenblum’s debut novel, Bad Summer People (2023), is set in the fictional village of Salcombe. The setting is based on Saltaire, a village on the real-life vacation destination of Fire Island, New York. Rosenblum spent most of her youth here, during which time her father was also the mayor of Saltaire. Rosenblum wrote the novel while spending the summer at her parents’ beach house. Before publication, a pirated draft of the novel was passed via email among the residents, and the story caused some dismay among those who feared that Rosenblum might expose some of their real-life peccadilloes. Because her early draft used the names of her real-life neighbors before she later altered character names for publication, such fears may not have been entirely unfounded. However, the author maintains that her story is entirely fictional.

Rosenblum works as a content editor for Bustle Digital Group writing. In previous positions, she was the executive editor of Elle magazine and a senior editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, New York Magazine, and Glamour. Bad Summer People was named a summer 2023 must-read by multiple media outlets, including Bustle, ELLE, Cosmopolitan, and Bloomberg.

This guide refers to the Flatiron Books Kindle edition.

Plot Summary

The summer residents of the village of Salcombe on Fire Island are returning for a season of tennis and gossip. Lauren Parker, the acknowledged queen bee of the Salcombe summer people, is looking forward to a retreat from the drama and stress of her upper-crust life in New York City. On the ferry, she bumps into her old friend, Rachel Woolf, a somewhat needy woman and an inveterate gossip who has attached herself to Lauren. Rachel points out the community’s new tennis pro, Robert Heyworth, and Lauren is struck by an unaccustomed physical attraction which Robert himself soon returns.

Rachel lives for her Salcombe summers and always throws the first party of the season, for it is a golden opportunity to get people drunk and find out their secrets. The big secret this year is that Lauren’s husband, Jason, is cheating on her with Jen, the wife of his best friend, Sam. Jason has always been jealous of Sam, and his infatuation with Sam’s wife Jen has more to do with taking something away from Sam than with appreciating Jen herself. Learning of this ongoing affair, Rachel is thrilled with the prospect of the summer drama that will inevitably ensue.

Unlike Rachel, who eagerly anticipates the summer season, Lauren is entirely bored with her life. She has never really loved Jason, and she knows that he has never really loved her. She has never cheated on him before, but now, Robert’s appeal proves irresistible. After a confrontation with one of her social rivals, Lauren feels emboldened enough to make an advance on Robert, which he accepts, and they initiate an affair. Robert both envies and despises the spoiled, entitled people of Salcombe, but he is attracted to Lauren’s air of elegance and reserve. Yet his affair with Lauren is not his only social transgression, for he is also embezzling money from the tennis club where he gives lessons. His scheme is a relatively simple one; he arranges to give a few extra lessons that he doesn’t enter in the financial ledger. Robert got the idea for the embezzlement scheme from Larry Higgins, a financier who offered him a job learning finance after the end of the summer.

Rachel’s delight over Jason’s ongoing affair with Sam’s wife also stems from the fact that she has carried a torch for Sam since they were children. She and Sam also had a brief fling one summer, well before Sam met Jen, and Rachel has always wanted to resume her relationship with Sam. Halfway through the summer, she drinks a bit too much and tries to seduce Sam. When he rejects her, she tells him that Jen is having an affair, although she doesn’t tell him with whom.

As the summer progresses, Salcombe’s upper-class society interactions continue to revolve around tennis. The tennis club is run by Susan Steinhagen, a member of the older generation, which generally has a higher standard of morality than the younger set of “summer people” who flock to Salcombe. Susan suspects that Robert has been too friendly with Lauren, so she gets Rachel to warn him to back off. Robert resolves to be more circumspect in his activities but never considers ending the affair. He also continues his embezzlement activities, believing that no one is keeping track of the lessons he teaches, but Susan is more attentive than he has realized. Upon seeing the ledger, she knows at once that he has been stealing money from the tennis club.

This year, Lauren and Jen team up for the doubles tournament and beat Rachel and her partner. Rachel is highly competitive, especially with regard to Lauren. Stung by her defeat, she finally tells Sam that Jen has been sleeping with Jason. The usually peaceful and easygoing Sam explodes at this news. Realizing that she has gone too far, Rachel flees Salcombe and hides out for a few days.

Meanwhile, Robert realizes that Susan has taken the ledger, and he is losing his opportunity to work for Larry Higgins. He sets out to catch Susan and get the ledger back just as a storm is rolling in. At the same time, Sam is out in the rain, hunting for Jason with a kitchen knife, and Jen and Lauren have banded together to search for both their husbands. Jen apologizes to Lauren for the affair, but Lauren admits that she has always known Jason to be in love with Jen, and she didn’t care. She admits to her affair with Robert, and Jen tells her that she deserves some happiness.

Robert tracks Susan down, and she flees him on her bicycle, still in possession of the incriminating ledger. Rachel sees Robert pursuing Susan and follows both of them, and soon, all three of them approach a group of people on the boardwalk. In this tableau, Sam has caught up to Jason and is now menacing him with the knife. Lauren and Jen reach the two men, and Lauren is overcome by anger at Jason for how weak he has made her appear to the rest of the community. She gives him a shove just as Susan is passing. Jason staggers and accidentally knocks Susan off the boardwalk. Seeing this, Robert stops and turns tail, and only Rachel knows that he was ever there.

Jason and Sam and their wives check Susan and believe that she is dead. Anxious to avoid the damage to their reputations that would occur if they were questioned by the police, they scatter, fully prepared to deny ever having been at the scene. When everyone is gone, Robert returns and finds the ledger. He also realizes Susan, whose neck is broken, is still alive, so he smothers her. When her body is found the next morning, everyone assumes that she simply rode off the boardwalk in the storm.

In the aftermath of Susan’s death, Sam can’t stop wondering why the older woman was out in the storm in the first place. In an attempt to learn more, he manipulatively seduces Rachel in order to coerce her into telling him about her perspective on the events that occurred on the night of Susan’s death. Rachel also admits that Robert was present on the boardwalk as well. Sam searches Robert’s house and finds the ledger. Jen joins him, and they decide not to complicate the situation by turning in Robert. Instead, they destroy the ledger and concoct a plan to frame Jason for Susan’s death. As the Salcombe residents are packing up and preparing to board the ferry to return to their winter lives, Sam has a sudden attack of conscience and tries to warn Jason to leave the dock so that he won’t be arrested in front of the whole town. Sam’s warning is too late; the police exit the ferry and take Jason into custody, and Lauren is humiliated. Sam goes with Jason, determined to defend him.

Several months later, Robert is working with Larry Higgins in New York when he bumps into Lauren on the street. He learns that Lauren and Jason are still married, but they have sold their Salcombe house and bought a summer place in the Hamptons. Sam and Jen are divorced, and Jen has kept their Salcombe house. Rachel has moved to California to be near her sisters. Robert is disgusted with them all and vows never to go near the “bad, bad people” (253) again.