The Victim’ by Awais Khan in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing) If so, could Leo be an unreliable narrator and, like in Camus’ novel, the death that occurs is a murder - did Leo actually murder Oscar, because he was jealous of his being with Luce, the girl he fancies, and Leo distanced himself from the crime like he distances himself from everything else in his life, pretending the swings killed him instead? It would explain the bizarre choice of not alerting anyone to Oscar’s accidental death and implicating himself unnecessarily. The references to the heat don’t only add to the atmosphere, Jestin also uses it to reference global warming and our ignorance of the climate crisis: “Every year it got hot earlier – this year it had been in February – and we had welcomed it without fear, happy to see the end of winter; we’d sat out on café terraces with no sense of foreboding about what it might mean. We didn’t sense the inferno coming. I wondered what temperature would finally be too hot.” The next day is the hottest in seventeen years. Disoriented by the oppressive heat, and distracted by his desire for a girl named Luce, Leonard spends the ensuing hours trying not to unravel.

Heatwave by Victor Jestin — Ashley Review and Summary of Heatwave by Victor Jestin — Ashley

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.”— Grazia Victor Jestin's debut novella centers around the question why Léo didn't stop Oscar, and why he didn't report what he saw and hid the corpse instead. It's all about the complexity of human nature and the atmosphere that is determined by the different associations with heat. I really enjoyed how the author insists on the enigmatic nature of the case he describes, how he doesn't take the easy route, how he brings the place to life and contrasts teenage impulses. So, this wasn’t a bad book, at all, and I’ll definitely read another book by Victor Jestin. But I just had higher expectations, wanting to feel the guilt and the sadness more, wanting to know about Oscar more. Maybe even about Leo more, not just a snippet (okay, an important one) out of his life. You devour this book, but its effects linger, so strongly does it reverberate with destinies sacrificed to the yawn of the void’ Le PointThe Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Murders that Stunned an Empire , Julie Kavanagh (Grove Press UK) When I Grow Up’ by Robert Scragg in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds) Leonard is 17 and hates having to spend the summer holidays with his parents in a tent on a giant, hot camping in Les Landes full of shallow people enjoying themselves. The book opens with Leonard witnessing from afar his friend Oskar commit suicide in the middle of the night after a party. In a moment of mental bewilderment Leonard decides to bury the body on the beach. The novella then unfolds over the next 24 hours. His first instinct is to bury the body, as though hiding it will undo what has happened. But the memory of the buried body haunts him on this sweltering beach.

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

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 Victor Jestin portrays with cruel exactitude the throes of an adolescent trapped in a secret too heavy to bear’ L’Obs The CWA Dagger shortlists will be announced on 13th May at CrimeFest . The awards ceremony will be held at the Leonardo City hotel in London on 29th June, coinciding with National Crime Reading Month. The 2022 Diamond Dagger, awarded to an author whose crime-writing career has been marked by sustained excellence, has already been announced as going to C J Sansom.

The Clifton Vampire’ by TE Kinsey in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds) The book is filled with sexual confusion and teenage angst. Teen boys and girls drinking too much, eager to have their first (or next) sexual experience. All this while the parents have their own fun at the other end of the beach where a bunny-costumed host is prancing around, shouting Olé! Olé! and urging people to have fun! be happy! form a cha-cha line!

Heatwave by Victor Jestin | Goodreads Heatwave by Victor Jestin | Goodreads

The book is filled with empty interactions and fleeting moments. While the narrator bemoans his meaningless existence, it would seem many others feel the same. Come Meursault anche Leonard, adolescente confinato controvoglia in un campeggio estivo, è estraneo a se stesso e al mondo. You devour this book, but its effects linger, so strongly does it reverberate with destinies sacrificed to the yawn of the void.” —Le PointA literary sensation in France, Heatwave is an unsettling and evocative novel that examines our darkest impulses. Leonard promptly proceeds to drag Oscar to the dunes and buries him. For reasons unknown he decides to keep Oscar’s death a secret, carry on as normal and spend the remainder of his holiday as if nothing happened. His denial is made markedly easier by Luce, the girl he’s infatuated with, showing a sudden interest in him. In the blink of an eye, the pervasive heat, brightness and cheerfulness of the campers become considerably more bearable for our cynical narrator. Mooi portret van een adolescent, die het gevoel heeft dat hij niet thuis hoort in de wereld waarin hij zich momenteel bevindt. Een portret dat ook ergens laat begrijpen waarom hij die vreemde beslissingen neemt wanneer hij ziet hoe één van de andere campingjongeren zelfmoord pleegt.

The Bookseller - News - Hawkins, Billingham, Hallett and

It is the end of August and the long summer holidays are drawing to a close. Seventeen-year-old Leonard is on a camping holiday with his family in the South of France. Awkward and ill at ease, he is an outsider who creeps away from parties unnoticed after a couple of drinks. I wonder if this novel is intended as a modern retelling of Camus’ The Outsider, because Leonard is certainly that - an awkward loner who doesn’t fit into society or really understand how to or want to fit in - and the story centres around a singular death (there are also more superficial similarities like the beach setting, the length of the novel and both authors’ French nationalities). The rest of the novella then follows Leo’s guilt at what he has done. As you’re probably confused at his actions, he is too. We find passages of him beating himself up about the circumstances of what has happened, leading to these existentialist questions of why he had to find Oscar and why did he have to be the one to bury him. Someone on Goodreads compared this to The Stranger by Albert Camus and quite frankly I agree with that comparison. It’s like a strange fever dream, which I guess this would be like what our main character is feeling.

Victor Jestin succeeds in transporting us with almost nothing, this unique style, this voice—one might almost say these whispers.... A tour de force.” —Le Figaro Culture