The Summer Man

Written by S.D. Perry

Narrated by Kate Rudd

Amanda Young grew up in Port Isley, a remote seaside community perched on the outermost shores of Washington. She’s watched as, each summer, the tight-knit small village braces for the invasion of vacationers seeking refuge from city life. But this year, a new kind of visitor arrives in Port Isley, bringing something most unexpected.

Soon after the season begins, a teenage girl’s mutilated body is found in a local park. The police declare it a random act of violence, but Amanda’s not so sure…because how can she explain that she had a premonition of the crime just hours before it happened? Or that the neighbors she’s known forever inexplicably are beginning to change…into lustful, violent shadows of themselves? Amanda knows something’s not right. And she knows it has something to do with the sinister stranger who’s come to town. But can she uncover his dark secret in time to stop him—and in time to save the souls of Port Isley?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: May 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781469290638

S.D. Perry

S. D. Perry is a novelist living in Portland, Oregon.  She is currently lives with her husband, Myk, her two children Cyrus and Myk Jr, and their two dogs. She mostly writes tie-in novels based on works in the fantasy/science-fiction/horror genre, including Resident Evil, Star Trek, Aliens and Predator. She has also written a handful of short stories and movie novelizations. Her favorite Star Trek series is the original series, with her favorite characters being “The Big Three”—Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

Reviews for The Summer Man

[Nathan Allen · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good book until the end. The end was kinda meh.

[tldegray-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

2.5/5 stars. I liked the build up of this novel, and the idea, but the climax was a letdown.

It's Summer, it's hot, and it's violent. Violence is breaking out all over the town and just a few people are finding it suspicious. Amanda, who had a vision of the first violent act, her best friend, the local newspaper man, and a psychiatrist are all drawn together investigating this outbreak of violence.

I loved the suspense of this. Who could they save? Could they save anyone? And what was happening?

I was disappointed with what they discovered and with how they treated it. In my opinion, the ending wasn't satisfying.

(Provided by publisher)

[sunset_x_cocktail · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Not exactly impressed with this one. 47 North gave me my first auto approval from Netgalley and I found this one while having a look at some of the titles were offering. It sounded quite interesting, and got off to a good intriguing start.

As a pointed out by another review of the same book I read, some of the grammar was a bit off, very very long sentences and very long paragraphs as well. Whether it was the formatting on the kindle version I was reading, I don't know, but some paragraphs seemed to be entire pages long.

While the premise was interesting enough, normal small town, summer tourist season kicks off and people start acting weird and going murderously crazy. One teen develops psychic mind reading abilities and can see murders and stuff before it happens. The pacing was also extremely slow. You'd get a nice gory bit, then lots of different characters introduced and long stretches before anything else really happened. It felt...rambling and was off putting. About half way through I got very bored and started skimming through.

Towards the end things picked up in a rash of craziness, but then the actual end was extremely disappointing and I found it to be a total cop out.

So while an interesting idea, didn't work for me.

[rachelep-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I won this book from goodreads. It is Dean Koontz type story. Lots of characters to keep track of. Amanda has a violent vision that later comes true. Something strange is happening in this town, what is the cause?

[mishker-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting thriller that tells the story of a small summer-destination town. Something is happening to the people in the town that no one can really explain. A teenager, Amanda might hold the clue. When I began reading this, it took me a while to get into the story. There are many characters to get to know since the story concerns itself with the whole town, when I did get to know them I felt a part of their story. The author does a good job of realistically dealing with something that could go sort of science fiction or fantasy and kept me guessing about what was really going on until the end. If you like thrillers in the same vein as "The Happening," you will like this.