The Summer Guests

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of mental illness, illness, death, substance use, and gender discrimination.

Maggie Bird is one of the main protagonists in The Summer Guests. As an elderly woman who investigates crimes, she is similar to other famous elderly female fictional detectives like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote. However, unlike those amateur detectives, Maggie Bird has a background as a CIA agent that she uses to inform her investigation into the disappearance of Zoe Conover.

Maggie is both empowered and haunted by her past life as a CIA agent. As author Teri Gerritsen explained in an interview, “I wanted to show a damaged woman” (Carlson, Mindy. “How Do You Spell Spy? N-E-I-G-H-B-O-R.” The Big Thrill). Maggie was badly hurt by “her brief and tragic marriage to Danny” (210), a doctor she married who never knew about her true identity as a CIA agent, as explained in the first book in the series, The Spy Coast. This experience has left her “wary” of entering a new relationship with her fellow Martini Club member Declan Rose. Despite these emotional scars, Maggie’s experience is invaluable when it comes to investigating Zoe’s disappearance.