The Heatwave by Kate Riordan

☆☆☆☆
ebook, 280 pages
Expected publication: August 18th 2020 by Grand Central Publishing
About the Book:
Elodie was beautiful. Elodie was smart. Elodie was manipulative. Elodie is dead.
When Sylvie Durand receives a letter calling her back to her crumbling family home in the South of France, she knows she has to go. In the middle of a sweltering 1990's summer marked by unusual fires across the countryside, she returns to La Reverie with her youngest daughter Emma in tow, ignoring the deep sense of dread she feels for this place she's long tried to forget. As memories of the events that shattered their family a decade earlier threaten to come to the surface, Sylvie struggles to shield Emma from the truth of what really happened all those years ago. In every corner of the house, Sylvie can't escape the specter of Elodie, her first child. Elodie, born amid the '68 Paris riots with one blue eye and one brown, and mysteriously dead by fourteen. Elodie, who reminded the small village of one those Manson girls. Elodie who knew exactly how to get what she wanted. As the fires creep towards the villa, it's clear to Sylvie that something isn't quite right at La Reverie... And there is a much greater threat closer to home.

The Heatwave is a well written family drama/psychological thriller by Kate Riordan. I really enjoyed this book as it is written with substance, character development and the deeper and darker undertones.

The story is told through two timelines, the past and the present. These are my favourite kind of books. We learn of Elodie's childhood and young adulthood...can you say demon child!? The tension builds and merges in both time lines becoming more harrowing and twisted. As with the best suspense novels there are mysteries within mysteries.

The juxtaposition between the past and present gives us a compelling look at how the shocking spiral of events from Elodie's childhood affected the characters in different ways.

While The Heatwave certainly centers on survival there is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel, as familiar bonds reconnect and the human spirit attempts to prevail in the face of evil.

Thank you NetGalley, Kate Riordan and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an impartial review; all opinions are my own.

#NetGalley