Book info

• Title The Heatwave
• Author Kate Riordan
• Year 2020
• Genre Thriller

Sylvie hasn't been back to her crumbling French family home in years. Not since the tragic death of her eldest daughter Elodie. Every corner of the old house is haunted by memories of her - memories she has tried to forget. But as the summer heat rises, a long-buried family secret is about to come to light. Because there's something Sylvie's been hiding about what really happened to Elodie that summer. And it could change everything...

Thoughts

I have mixed feelings about this, it’s really well written with an interesting style in which our protagonist is effectively writing to her daughter about what’s happening now, and what happened in the past. It’s a story about the complexities of family life, particularly when you have a child that isn’t everything you expected and the difficulties of letting go of the past when it’s still out there. It was great, but I just feel like the ending didn’t quite fit together for me.

Rating: 3 / 5