Tourist Season by Brynne Weaver

Here is a summary with spoilers for Tourist Season by Brynne Weaver

Harper Starling has found she loves her new life and refuge in Cape Carnage. She is the town’s gardener, although it gives her a great opportunity to hide and dispose of dead bodies using the wood chipper (lovingly named Cookie Monster) and use the remains to plant her garden on top of. Harper has a hidden past, as she was once tortured and kidnapped, and now wants to leave that path behind. Arthur, an elderly man who also has a history of violence, is the one who encourages Harper to be herself.

Enter Nolan Rhodes, a tourist to Cape Carnage. However, while most tourists stay a weekend, Nolan is planning on staying for six weeks. Nolan was involved in a hit-and-run years ago that left him in pain and recovery and his brother dead. Nolan wants retribution and has been slowly finding those who were in the car and killing them. His last target: Harper Starling.

When Nolan goes to the coffee shop in town, he runs into a beautiful girl and offers to walk with her for a bit, only to find out her name is Harper Starling—his supposed next target. Nolan is surprised that she is the one who caused so much pain in his life. He goes back to his hotel to start planning when he runs into Sam Porter, a true crime solver who needs help running a drone. Nolan agrees and ends up getting aerial footage of Harper’s place. When he goes over to her house that night, he finds someone watching Harper through the window and takes care of him, meticulously killing him and placing parts of him around Harper’s house.

Harper starts to worry about Arthur, believing that he is losing his memory. But she doesn’t have time to dwell on that, because she wakes up with a severed head in her home. She then discovers Nolan. Thus, a game begins. Harper retaliates by sneaking into Nolan’s room and stealing a scrapbook with all of his past kills. When Nolan finds out, he realizes that she could turn it in as evidence and has to confront her. He reveals that Sam Porter is in town (and has purchased land), and Harper gets nervous because if Sam looks in the right place, he could take her or Arthur down.

She offers a bargain to Nolan: help her exhume and relocate the bodies she has hidden, and if he does so, she’ll give him back the book. Thus start their grim nights together uncovering bodies. During this time, Harper keeps thinking about her traumatizing past, while Nolan struggles with falling for the girl who caused him so much pain.

As days go by, Harper and Nolan get closer and closer, both talking about the losses in their lives, which results in a fun night together. But they still don’t fully trust each other, even as they grow closer. Harper also has Arthur to deal with; he has been more forgetful than ever and even has a small incident that sends him to the hospital.

In a moment of fun, the town has a festival where Harper enters a race. Her soapbox car gets out of hand, sending her into the ocean, where she can’t swim. Nolan jumps in to save her and almost doesn’t get there in time. He realizes that he would have been devastated if she died and that he truly does have feelings for her.

Nolan decides he needs to look more into Sam and breaks into his room one night. He sees all the evidence Sam has on Arthur—dates, coordinates, and pictures of Harper. Nolan realizes that he wants Harper and tells her that, claiming her and saying he’ll follow wherever she goes. Harper realizes she feels the same, and when Nolan leaves, she starts to make plans to give back his book.

She is not able to do so because Arthur has a setback when he kills a man, and Nolan and Harper are forced to cover for him. The murder could not have come at a worse time, as Sam’s investigation is getting even closer to Harper, and she doesn’t have the time to cover up another murder. She is forced to have complete trust in Nolan to help her out—and to her surprise, she is not scared to trust him.

As Nolan is rushing to collect things from his room, he is intercepted by Sam, who attacks him, takes him down, and tells him that he is ready to expose not just Nolan but also Harper.

Meanwhile, Harper is starting to panic, as she hasn’t heard from Nolan. When she goes to his room and sees his belongings packed up, she is heartbroken. But as she starts putting the pieces together, she decides to look a little deeper.

Nolan is being held captive until Harper arrives and saves him, and the two of them take down Sam and hide the body.

With Sam dead, Nolan still feels uneasy, so he goes to look at one of the coordinates he found in Sam’s notes. There he finds a car submerged in the water. When he investigates further, he discovers the car belonged to Autumn Bower, a girl he knew a little about. She was found after being tortured and then disappeared. When he looks at an old video of Autumn Bower, he is shocked to see that it is his Harper looking back at him. Autumn Bower stole the identity of the girl who was involved in his hit-and-run. He has not fallen in love with his brother’s killer, but rather a girl just trying to start a new life.

Though his happiness ends quickly, the same Discord chat he was on about the car—the one Sam was also a part of to uncover the truth—has members saying they need to mobilize and go investigate Cape Carnage.