Summer's Never Over

The novel alternates between two timelines, unraveling interconnected mysteries at Dread's Cove, a famous summer camp in the North Georgia mountains. A prologue shows an unnamed woman fleeing through burning woods, disoriented by smoke and guilt.

In the present, Greer Olsen, a bartender in Atlanta, learns that her mother, Anita Olsen, has died of sudden cardiac arrest at 51. Anita owned Dread's Cove, a camp her grandfather, Dread Olsen, built on the site of an abandoned prisoner-of-war camp after World War II. Greer has not returned in five years, not since a fire killed her friend Stephanie Bennett and destroyed much of the property. Thomas Riggins (Rig), the camp's head of operations and Greer's surrogate father figure, urges her to come home for a Welcome Back Weekend celebrating the camp's reopening.

At the camp, Chelsea Riggins, Rig's daughter and Greer's lifelong best friend, refuses to speak to Greer, furious over her five-year absence. Wes, the camp's head cook and Greer's ex-boyfriend, is warm and attentive. Greer also spots Trevor Townsend, the former waterfront manager she dated after Wes; their relationship ended four years ago under circumstances she has never fully processed. Most startling is the appearance of Margo Pierce, Steph's former best friend, now a reporter for The Atlanta Times. After the fire, Margo called the staff murderers and cut off all contact.

Flashback chapters return to the summer of the fire. Anita hires Steph Bennett and Margo Pierce as last-minute replacement counselors, and they move into Black Bass cabin with Greer and Chelsea. Steph is effervescent and affectionate; Margo is guarded and sharp. Greer is drawn to their energy and also grows closer to Trevor, their connection deepening into a romance.

As the summer progresses, a mysterious figure dubbed the Phantom terrorizes the camp, invoking a campfire legend about the vengeful spirits of dead prisoners. Someone breaks into the camp office. Two boys disappear after following the Phantom into the forest; they are found safe but expelled. Someone drills holes in the canoes, nearly drowning two young campers, and later slashes every life jacket.

Greer discovers the Phantom's identity by accident: She catches Steph climbing out of a window dressed in all black. Steph admits she has been prowling the camp and promises to stop. Greer, desperate to preserve their friendship, stays silent. Steph sweetens the bargain by offering Greer a room in her Atlanta apartment, and Greer trades her silence for the promise of a new life. Later, Steph lures Greer into Anita's wine cellar under the pretense of stealing champagne. The door swings shut, trapping Greer in darkness while Steph apparently searches Anita's bedroom upstairs. Greer confiscates her mother's antique lighter from Steph afterward.

On the final night, after the campers have been sent home early due to escalating vandalism, Steph confronts Greer on the beach. Drunk and agitated, she claims Anita lied to her and that she has proof. She vanishes into the woods, and Greer chases her. In the pitch-dark forest, Greer reaches into her bag for her phone but finds only the confiscated lighter. She flicks it on for light, startles at a crack of thunder, and drops it onto the tinder-dry ground. The woods ignite at her feet.

In the present, Margo proposes they investigate Steph's past together. In the old cabin, they find a hidden photo under a floorboard: a young family at Dread's Cove, with a strange symbol on the back. Margo reveals Steph came to the camp because her dying father let slip that he and Steph's mother met there. Steph had been searching for her missing mother, who vanished when Steph was a baby. Greer's father, visiting for Anita's memorial, identifies the woman as Winona Hayes, Anita's former best friend who disappeared the night of Greer's first birthday. When Greer and Margo interview Rig, he claims he barely remembers Winona, but his evasiveness suggests otherwise.

In the Barn, a storage building, Greer finds a box labeled "Winona Hayes" in Rig's handwriting. Inside are personal belongings, a photo of baby Greer and baby Steph with their mothers, and two unused one-way bus tickets dated the night Winona supposedly left. Greer realizes Winona may not have left voluntarily. Margo reveals that on the night of the fire, she and Steph were at the Barn when Steph said she was close to figuring something out. They split up, with Steph heading toward Anita's cabin along a path untouched by the fire, meaning Steph should have survived. Greer confesses that Steph was the Phantom, enraging Margo.

Greer reconnects with Trevor, and their old breakup unravels: Greer had said she could not go through with the move to Boulder, Colorado, meaning she was not ready to leave Georgia, but Trevor interpreted her words as ending the relationship. He tells her he still loves her.

Greer discovers on her mother's computer a fire investigation report concluding the blaze was human-caused. Anita knew the truth for five years and shared it only with Rig. She also uncovers Margo's email correspondence revealing that Margo suspects Greer of involvement in Steph's death, meaning Margo has been using her all along. Continuing alone, Greer finds her mother's Bible in Rig's office with a drawing matching the symbol from the hidden photo. She realizes it is a map leading to the edge of the bluffs, an off-limits area on the far side of the lake. She also discovers a gun in Rig's bedside drawer.

Following the map, Greer reaches a clearing where flame azaleas have been planted over a rectangular mound of earth. She digs and uncovers a bone: Winona Hayes's grave.

Rig arrives and confesses. He and Winona had been in love and planned to leave together, but Anita, terrified of losing her best friend, told Winona's husband Frankie about the affair. Frankie confronted Rig, and in the struggle Winona stepped between them, struck her head, and died instantly. Rig and Anita buried the body and told everyone Winona had left.

Margo appears holding the gun Greer found and dropped, accusing Rig of killing Steph. She strikes him unconscious. Then Wes steps from the darkness, armed, and shoots Margo, who falls. Calm and eerily composed, Wes reveals that on the night of the fire he followed Greer into the woods after overhearing her tell Chelsea she was leaving with Steph. He confirms he saw Greer drop the lighter and start the blaze. When he lost sight of Greer in the smoke, he found Steph and killed her, believing she was taking Greer away from him. He also confesses to the waterfront sabotage that summer, designed to discredit Trevor. When Wes notices Greer wearing Trevor's shirt, he snaps and wraps his hands around her throat. Greer whispers their old promise and kisses him, loosening his grip just long enough for Margo, wounded but alive, to shoot him.

Trevor and Chelsea arrive with the sheriff. Rig turns himself in for concealing Winona's body. Wes is taken into custody. Kendall Everton, a former camper, tells Greer that the weekend's vandalism was done by Carter Banks, one of the boys expelled years earlier, seeking revenge.

In an epilogue set one year later, Greer runs Dread's Cove alongside Chelsea, their friendship cautiously rebuilt. Margo has published a front-page account of the truth. On the anniversary of Anita's death, Greer and Chelsea scatter her ashes overlooking the lake. Trevor, now living at the camp and running the waterfront, joins them. Greer reflects that she has stopped living in binaries and begun to accept who she truly is. She is home.