Windless Summer

A father’s love. A shattering secret. A summer that will change lives forever.


In the town of Rocket, Washington—a summer playground for windsurfers and tourists—a windless summer ignites fear as businesses and residents move away. Rocket’s motel, run by a lonely widower named Tom Jemmet, is hard hit. And Tom has demons of his own: memories of a beautiful wife that still haunt him, and a troubled young daughter whose retreat into a silent world confounds her father and sparks whispers in town.

Swirling around Tom are lives much like his own, townspeople yearning for wind but also for hope, even love. Charlene, a mail clerk, helps care for Tom’s daughter while a secret gnaws at her heart…Lauren, the town vet, has fallen for Tom, who barely notices…and newspaper editor Hap is hatching a foolish plan to save his town.

That’s when a miracle—or something like it—strikes Tom’s run-down motel. Guests who stay in Room 6 begin experiencing sudden acts of fate, both terrible and great. But while tourists descend on Rocket and the the town shows new signs of life, the truth about Tom’s motel and the death of his wife—as well as the secret hopes and fears of everyone around him—are exposed in ways that are both surprising and inevitable….

Publishers Weekly

Sharfeddin revisits many of the themes from Blackbelly and Mineral Spirits-rural life, crime and punishment, the supernatural-while striking some new chords in this bleak look at Rocket, Wash., and its unlucky inhabitants. Tom Jemmet is the widower owner of the rundown Jemmet Motel, and his relationship with his autistic 12-year-old daughter, Sienna, takes center stage in a plot packed with secrets-including the death of Tom's wife several years ago. As the summer progresses, this town, usually teeming with tourists, suffers a slow death thanks to a lack of wind, which normally brings surfers to the nearby Columbia River. After news of a strange accident befalling a motel guest hits the news (courtesy of local reporter Hap Mitsui), Rocket is flooded with undesirable visitors who stir up town secrets and prejudices. The interwoven perspectives of Tom, Hap and Lauren Kent, town veterinarian and Tom's love interest, lend the gloomy narrative speed and immediacy in Sharfeddin's best work yet. (Mar.)

Heather Sharfeddin grew up in Idaho and Montana, the daughter of a forester-turned-cattle rancher. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and son. Her previous books include Blackbelly and Mineral Spirits.