The Heatwave by Kate Riordan has all of the elements that suggest a summer bestseller. Sylvie lives in London with her daughter Emma, a letter arrives informing her that she has to return to her family home in Provence. Sylvie finds herself confronting a dark and dangerous past which she had hoped to bury forever.

This psychological thriller has a dual narrative which moves fluidly between the past and present. A perfect summer read.

Elodie was smart and manipulative... and is now dead. Years later her mum Sylvie must go back to her family home in La Reverie and travels back with her daughter Emma. It soon becomes clear that something isn't right and the story leads us to find out what happened to Elodie all those years ago. A gripping read with twists and turns.

Scarily compelling! Kept me awake at night!
Elodie is a strange child and right from birth seemed to illicit fear in her mum Sylvie. Elodie is dead and no longer a danger to anyone but is she? The story twists and turns and in places I had to put it down for a few minutes to take a deep breath and read on, almost as if I was scared what I was going to read next.
Brilliantly written and totally addictive and I found myself thinking about Elodie long after I had finished the book.
Would definitely recommend - amazing!

The Heatwave is a gripping, well written psychological thriller that kept me interested right until the end. I can imagine that it would be a perfect summer read, given the page-turning nature and south of France setting of the novel, but even in miserable February I enjoyed it. Although the twists weren’t obvious (I didn’t really guess anything) they were mostly plausible, which isn’t always the case in this kind of book.

The Heatwave is the only book you need this summer.

Gripping, well paced and full of thrills. The characters are well written and realistic. A holiday must read!

The pacing and the tension in this book are spot on. It invites you to just keep on reading.
The mystery of Elodie and what exactly did happen to her,and to Emma unfolds over dual timelines,giving a drip feed of information leading right up.to the final chapter.
I sped through this book,sucked in by the idyllic French countryside,the sunshine,and the not so picture perfect story that went with it.
Good stuff.

An unusually written book set between 1965 and 1993. Emma and her mother return to the family home in France where her mother's memories are stirred and her other daughter. A gripping tale.

#TheHeatwave #NetGalley
Extraordinarily brilliant.
When Sylvie receives a letter calling her back to her crumbling family home in Provence, she knows she has to go. In the middle of a sweltering summer marked by unusual fires across the countryside, she returns to La Reverie with her youngest daughter Emma in tow.In every corner of the house, Sylvie can’t escape the spectre of Elodie, her first child. Elodie with the golden hair. Elodie, who knew exactly how to get what she wanted. Elodie, whose death the villagers still whisper about.
With her 14 year-old daughter Emma, Sylvie must return to France to sell her childhood home, La Reverie. She left ten years earlier after the death of her elder daughter.But when she returns, dark recollections begin to surface. Something - or someone - is haunting Sylvie .
This book is hell of a thriller. The writing and characterization are extraordinary.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK Michael Joseph for giving me an advance copy.