Greece, heat, sex, death
an outstanding thriller
The cover image is Kardamyli in the Mani peninsula and I found it here. The settlement features in the Iliad.
So many good books at the moment, so here is another free extract. This is for you if you’re a fan of superior psychological suspense, which frankly who isn’t?
I love Sabine Durrant’s books because they’re so well written, so emotionally intelligent, and therefore so satisfying (she’s pretty hot on twisty plots, too, obviously). Her previous thrillers include Lie With Me, which was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller, and Sun Damage, which is currently in production with Bad Wolf and Disney.
I think Dead Heat might be her best one yet. It’s set in Greece over a summer and it’s incredibly atmospheric and oppressive - the heat, the relationships, the events - it’s all sticky and woozy and hot and sandy and salty and languorous. You completely feel like you’re there.
Story: Matt is a journalist who’s just been made redundant and been dumped by his girlfriend. His old friends Celia and Adam suggest he go and mope at the cottage in the grounds of their house in Greece for the summer, and maybe write the screenplay he’s always going on about. They’ll join him at the main house later. So off he goes. Adored Celia is rich and, despite her best endeavours, entitled. Adam is the sort of man who’s never met a vagina he didn’t like.
But when Matt gets to the Peleponnese, there’s been a new arrival, a very rich man who has built a massive and gross edifice across the bay. He has a very large yacht and he throws very large parties. The still-wild Greek idyll Matt knows and loves is scarred. If I was writing a blurb, which thank goodness I’m not, I would say AND DEEPER SCARS SOON EMERGE. There’s a missing person, too. Dum dum duuuuuuuuummmm…
Before becoming a full-time novelist, Sabine worked in editorial at The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Independent, where she also wrote the weekly interview.
Anyway: here are chapters 2 and 3. I was going to say this is the perfect book to read on a sun lounger, but I couldn’t wait that long and read it in the rain and hail under a blanket. NB he’s going on about his foot because he trod on a sea urchin the day before.
Here is Dead Heat on Bookshop, at Waterstones and on Amazon.
A quick other thing: Sabine says she’s been obsessed by the Mani (where Dead Heat is set) since reading the very great Patrick Leigh Fermor in her twenties, specifically this. Fascinating man. Here’s an obit (gift link), and here’s a personal appreciation by Jan Morris. I love ‘Ach so, Herr Major’.
PLF was a correspondent of Deborah Devonshire, née Mitford, for about 20 years and their letters are a) total bliss and b) among my favourite correspondence of all time. E.g., him on swimming the Bosphorus: ‘I had beaten all records for slowness and length of immersion’. She on meeting JFK: ‘Jack asked what I do all day. Stumped.’ The letters are collated here and if you haven’t read them, you have a treat in store.
Have a lovely Thursday! We’ve had the most beautiful weather here - this ↑ was yesterday. Please kindly leave this post a 🩵 if you liked it, thank you, and I’ll be back on Saturday with a weekend supplement for paid subscribers. I think there might be quite a lot of clothes in it, because spring really feels like it’s arriving properly now. Yesterday I didn’t even wear any socks 🤘🏼.
PS If psychological thrillers aren’t your thing, read this free extract from Big Nobody. It will make you laugh and laugh (and then cry and cry when you buy the book). There’s a Greek element there, too, actually. And sex. And death.
PPS If you’re reading this furiously going ‘but I don’t want novels, I only want free really good chicken recipes,’ well, whaddayaknow.
"never met a vagina he didn't like" made me howl!!
Keep the book recommendations coming AND photos of your house & garden!