I highly recommend this book. It had me on the edge of my seat and I was desperate to know what was going to happen.
It is beautifully written and I was totally there, in Province, during a heatwave. The author certainly knows how to build tension, create an atmosphere, and develop a main character we can relate to.
Sylvie is French but has lived in London for over ten years. She returns to her family home in France with her teenage daughter Emma following a small fire, and with the aim of selling the house. While there Sylvie has to confront her past and the loss of her first daughter Elodie.
Things are not entirely as they seem however and I was absolutely engrossed in the story.
I finished the book over a week ago and I haven’t stoped thinking about it.
It is a definite 5 stars from me, and I will be raving about this book to everyone I meet.
Thank you to the talented Kate Riordan, the publisher and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

#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.

Absolutely loved this blinder of a novel - couldn't put it down! It had all my favourite elements - brilliant setting/location, atmosphere, some sort of ominous backstory. engaging characters and brilliant pacing. I couldn't stop turning the pages on my kindle, eager to find out what happened next as Riordan ramped up the tension.

Set in an old manor house in the south of France during a heatwave, Sylvie has returned to the house to put it up for sale after the death of her parents. Bringing along her younger daughter for what is ostensibly a holiday, Sylvie is unprepared to face secrets from her path and what exactly happened with her older daughter, the enigmatic and terrifying Elodie.

Loved this book and would absolutely read anything else by this author. If you like female sociopaths and gripping psychological thrillers in the vein of Liz Nugent, Sophie Hannah and Sabine Durrant, this is one for you.

Of all the books I've read through NetGalley so far, this was my favourite.

I felt I was there with the characters, and couldn't wait to get back to the story when I had to stop reading. Wonderful suspense and tension... And I really cared about the mother and daughter and what happened to them. Loved to hate the awful father!

One very slight negative, for me, was that the denouement happened a little too quickly. But this is a tiny criticism. Definitely a five-star read!