Dead Heat

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.

Dead Heat is Sabine Durrant’s seventh work of dark psychological suspense. Its setting, part of the Greek Peloponnese, has obsessed her since she read Patrick Leigh Fermor’s travel book The Mani in her twenties. Her previous thrillers include Lie with Me which was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, and Sun Damage, which was subject to a fierce film and TV bidding war and is currently in production with Bad Wolf and Disney.

Before becoming a full time novelist, Sabine Durrant worked in editorial at The Independent, The Sunday Times and The Guardian where she also wrote the weekly ‘Sabine Durrant’ interview with subjects as diverse as Archbishop Runcie, Stella McCartney and Jeff Goldblum. She has written two works of general fiction, including the bestselling Having it and Eating it, and two Connie Pickles novels for young adults. Her essay 'At Sea’, for the collection Truth or Dare, was a personal investigation into the life and death of her father, a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm, who disappeared off the Dorset coast a few months after she was born.

Sabine Durrant lives in south London with her husband, three adult children, one dog and two cats.

Sabine Durrant is a fantastic writer… Dead Heat is a cracker ― Jane Garvey, Times Radio

Expertly constructed and guilefully written, it inevitably reminds you of Patricia Highsmith, but also of The Great Gatsby ― Sunday Times

Incredibly atmospheric and oppressive - the heat, the relationships, the events - it’s all sticky and woozy and hot and sandy and salty and languorous . . . this is the perfect book to read on a sun lounger ― India Knight

With scintillating shades of The Great Gatsby, this intoxicating thriller is a superb study in menace ― Heat

Durrant’s talent for conjuring the harsh beauty of Greece’s Mani Peninsula immediately immerses the reader . . . explosive ― Daily Mail

This slow-burn thriller gives White Lotus vibes thanks to the luxe setting on Greece’s Mani Peninsula ― Good Housekeeping

Durrant pairs taut psychological suspense with crisp, beautiful writing ― i Paper

Explosive ― Woman & Home

Durrant’s cast of characters are intensely unlikeable and yet utterly irresistible ― Red

I loved this book. The descriptions are so beautiful that you almost don’t notice the brilliance of the plotting ― Elly Griffiths