The Heatwave
-
-
4.3 • 8 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Under the scorching French sun, a tense homecoming unearths a long-buried family secret in this "sultry, gorgeously written" thriller of a mother's greatest fear brought to life (Lucy Foley, New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party and The Guest List).
Elodie was beautiful. Elodie was smart. Elodie was manipulative. Elodie is dead.
When Sylvie Durand receives a letter calling her back to her crumbling family home in the South of France, she knows she has to go. In the middle of a sweltering 1990's summer marked by unusual fires across the countryside, she returns to La Reverie with her youngest daughter Emma in tow, ignoring the deep sense of dread she feels for this place she's long tried to forget.
As memories of the events that shattered their family a decade earlier threaten to come to the surface, Sylvie struggles to shield Emma from the truth of what really happened all those years ago. In every corner of the house, Sylvie can't escape the specter of Elodie, her first child. Elodie, born amid the '68 Paris riots with one blue eye and one brown, and mysteriously dead by fourteen. Elodie, who reminded the small village of one those Manson girls. Elodie who knew exactly how to get what she wanted. As the fires creep towards the villa, it's clear to Sylvie that something isn't quite right at La Reverie . . . And there is a much greater threat closer to home.
Rich in unforgettable characters, The Heatwave alternates between the past and present, grappling with what it means to love and fear a child in equal measure. With the lush landscape and nostalgia of a heady vacation read, Kate Riordan has woven a gripping page-turner with gorgeous prose that turns the idea of a summer novel on its head.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sylvie Durand, the unreliable narrator of this disturbing psychological thriller from Riordan (Fiercombe Manor), would prefer to forget the tragic events that broke up her marriage a decade earlier and prompted her to flee La R verie, the home where she grew up in the South of France, for a fresh start in London with her then four-year-old daughter, Emma. But the news of an arson fire at the now unoccupied property sends up a warning flare she dares not ignore. Sylvie's return to finally prepare La R verie for sale threatens to rekindle traumatic memories, since it's the last place she and Emma lived with Elodie, Sylvie's bad seed firstborn, who died mysteriously at 14. And it swiftly appears there may also be a more immediate menace, beyond the peril of annual summer forest fires in the area. Riordan skillfully manipulates the reader through what initially feels like a ghost story and then, after a revelation that totally recasts the situation, the nail-biting if not entirely plausible page-turner that ensues. S.J. Watson fans will want to check this one out.
