Ultimately, Heatwave is an intriguing thriller which examines good versus evil and humanity’s underlying barbarism when faced with unfamiliar situations. It also comments on societal pressure to conform and, on the other side of the spectrum, questions the artificial nature of people’s behaviour, their superficiality and their ability to ignore the issues they don’t want to deal with.

Heatwave by Victor Jestin | Crime Fiction Lover Heatwave by Victor Jestin | Crime Fiction Lover

Léonard c’è dentro tutto, fino al collo e oltre, non è solo testimone, non è solo spettatore: è complice, è partecipe, è artefice. The headline Gold Dagger, awarded for the crime novel of the year, sees Hawkins nominated for A Slow Fire Burning (Doubleday), alongside Billingham’s Rabbit Hole (Sphere) and Imran Mahmood’s I Know What I Saw (Raven). Ray Celestin is also in contention for the award for Sunset Swing (Mantle), which has also received nominations for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for thriller of the year, and the Historical Dagger. With a searing voice, Victor Jestin captures the stale air of tents, the cheap music, the guys disguised in pink bunny suits who force you to have fun, teenagers as poignant as they are idiotic, rage, desire, absurdity. In effect, scorching’ GraziaUna condizione che ricorda molto quella di Mersault sulla spiaggia, il caldo, quella luce, l’arabo, la pistola… Victor Jestin’s debut novel Heatwave has an intriguing premise that unfortunately turns out to be only that as what follows isn’t particularly interesting or memorable.

Heatwave | Book by Victor Jestin | Official Publisher Page Heatwave | Book by Victor Jestin | Official Publisher Page

During a sleepless night, Leonard wanders to the beach where he witnesses a tragedy and does nothing to intervene. The existential question posed is: Is doing nothing the very worst thing a person can do? Told over the space of a long weekend, this intense and brilliant novel is the story of an adolescent struggling to fit in. Heatwave is a gripping psychological thriller that poses the existential question: Jestin’s charged and chilling debut turns on a stifling vacation that descends from purgatory into a nightmarish inferno’ Publishers Weekly This drawn-out wandering of a boy outside the norm has been brought to life by the incredible precision of this young author’s voice’ Prima

Barcollando nella vita così lontano dal proprio sé, si aggira nottetempo lungo la spiaggia ed è allora che assiste, apparentemente indifferente, alla morte di un coetaneo. The young author of this first novel keeps all promises, with writing of a rare precision, mature and carnal... Moving and cinematic.”— La Vie