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
'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
'Better than every season of The White Lotus spun into one, and drenched with danger, sex, and revenge' Sarah Hilary
'Classy, cinematic and truly chilling' Jennie Godfrey
‘A deliciously dark, modern Greek Gatsby’ Julia Crouch
'A brilliant twisty, claustrophobic slow burn book with betrayal and lies and secrets and it's fantastic' Joe Haddow, BBC Morning Live
‘An unputdownable, unguessable, sun-drenched thriller’ Erin Kelly
'Drenched in atmosphere and menace with a Greek setting to die for. Literally.' Tammy Cohen
‘Compelling, evocative and fiendishly smart, this unsettling literary thriller is a five-star triumph’ Isabelle Broom
‘I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I loved it!' Marika Cobbold
'A genius story of infatuation and twisted love, as brooding as a Greek heatwave' Jane Thynne
‘Dangerously addictive’ Esther Freud
‘An explosive ending’ Woman & Home