Dead Heat

Under the searing sun, secrets simmer and betrayal lies thick in this claustrophobic, explosive new thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Richard & Judy Book Club pick, Lie With Me. 'A real scorcher. You won't want to miss this one!' HARLAN COBEN 'Gloriously dark and wildly engrossing' LISA JEWELL 'Sun-drenched and dripping with suspense, this is the perfect summer read' LUCY CLARKE ---------- Former journalist Matt Grimshaw's life is at a low ebb. He's been 'let go' by the paper where he's worked for years, and his relationship with his long-term girlfriend has come unstuck. So when an invitation arrives from his two closest friends, Celia and Adam Murphy, to join them at their house in Greece, he jumps at it. It may be harsh and unwelcoming on the Mani Peninsula but Matt determines to stay there for the whole summer and to write his much put-off screen-play. But then the Murphys plus children arrive, and a wealthy newcomer to the area starts throwing loud and lavish parties in his big house across the bay. As the nights become hotter and the parties wilder, everyone's motivations darken. Envy rises, resentments grow - until a terrible accident stops the summer in its tracks. At least, it looks like an accident... Set over one blazing Mediterranean summer, Sabine Durrant's new thriller is tense, claustrophobic and utterly gripping. ---------- Praise for Dead Heat . . . 'Expertly constructed and guilefully written, it inevitably reminds you of Patricia Highsmith, but also of The Great Gatsby' Sunday Times 'No one writes suspense like Sabine Durrant. Dead Heat is perfection' Clare Mackintosh, Sunday Times bestselling author of A Game of Lies 'An outstanding thriller' India Knight 'I loved this book. The descriptions are so beautiful that you almost don't notice the brilliance of the plotting' Elly Griffiths, bestselling author of The Frozen People 'Better than every season of The White Lotus spun into one, and drenched with danger, sex, and revenge' Sarah Hilary, author of Black Thorn 'Classy, cinematic and truly chilling, Dead Heat is a thriller it's going to be hard to beat this year. With shades of Patricia Highsmith, Sabine Durrant is an author in her prime' Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things 'A deliciously dark, modern Greek Gatsby' Julia Crouch, author of The Surprise Party 'Tense, clever and so vividly written' Ruth Mancini, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Woman on the Ledge 'An unputdownable, unguessable, sun-drenched thriller' Erin Kelly, bestselling author of He Said She Said 'Drenched in atmosphere and menace with a Greek setting to die for. Literally.' Tammy Cohen, The Wedding Party 'Compelling, evocative and fiendishly smart, this unsettling literary thriller is a five-star triumph' Isabelle Broom, author of The Orange House 'I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I loved it!' Marika Cobbold, author of On Hampstead Heath 'A genius story of infatuation and twisted love, as brooding as a Greek heatwave' Jane Thynne, author of Midnight in Vienna 'Dangerously addictive' Esther Freud, author of My Sister and Other Lovers 'An explosive ending' Woman & Home 'Intoxicating thriller' Heat 'Slow-burn thriller gives White Lotus vibes' Good Housekeeping 'Utterly irresistible' RED 'Scorchingly good, whip-smart' Fabulous Magazine

Dead Heat is Sabine Durrant's seventh work of dark psychological suspense. Its setting, part of the Greek Peloponnese, has obsessed her since she read Patrick Leigh Fermor's travel book The Mani in her twenties. Her previous thrillers include Lie with Me which was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, and Sun Damage, which was subject to a fierce film and TV bidding war and is currently in production with Bad Wolf and Disney. Before becoming a full time novelist, Sabine Durrant worked in editorial at The Independent, The Sunday Times and The Guardian where she also wrote the weekly 'Sabine Durrant' interview with subjects as diverse as Archbishop Runcie, Stella McCartney and Jeff Goldblum. She has written two works of general fiction, including the bestselling Having it and Eating it, and two Connie Pickles novels for young adults. Her essay 'At Sea', for the collection Truth or Dare, was a personal investigation into the life and death of her father, a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm, who disappeared off the Dorset coast a few months after she was born. Sabine Durrant lives in south London with her husband, three adult children, one dog and two cats.