Victor Jestin portrays with cruel exactitude the throes of an adolescent trapped in a secret too heavy to bear.”— L’Obs 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. E, dunque, Oscar ha diciassette anni: la sera ha ballato con Luce sulla spiaggia, si sono baciati, poi lui si è impiccato con la corda dell’altalena. Stalwarts in contention for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger are MW Craven for Dead Ground (Constable), Laura Lippman for Dream Girl (Faber), Belinda Bauer’s Exit (Bantam Press) and Linwood Barclay’s Find You First (HQ). Heatwave won the Prix de la vocation 2019 and the Prix Femina de Lycéens 2019 and it’s an intense, short, dark, suspenseful thriller set over the course of a weekend. It tells the story of Leonard, an awkward 17 year old boy enduring a family camping holiday in France and struggling to fit in with his peers.

Heatwave | Victor Jestin | 9781471199776 | NetGalley Heatwave | Victor Jestin | 9781471199776 | NetGalley

The Dagger in the Library is voted on exclusively by librarians, chosen for the author’s body of work and support of libraries. This year sees firm favourites from the genre including Mark Billingham, Susan Hill, Lin Anderson and Cath Staincliffe. 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. Jestin’s charged and chilling debut turns on a stifling vacation that descends from purgatory into a nightmarish inferno’ Publishers Weekly Changeling’ by Bryony Pearce in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing) The book was written in French (titled La Chaleur) and, of course, we read the translated version. That may have caused a couple of editing errors but, in general, I thought it was very well-written—especially considering the author wrote when he was just 23 years of age. Others must have agreed, as it won several awards, including the Prix Femina des Lycéens 2019 and the Prix de la vocation 2019. It was nominated for several other awards.Seventeen-year-old Leo is sitting in an empty playground at night, listening to the sound of partying and pop music filtering in from the beach, when he sees another, more popular boy strangle himself with the ropes of the swings. Then, in a panic, Leo drags him to the beach and buries him. 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. The 2022 Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards longlists have been revealed with Paula Hawkins, Mark Billingham, Janice Hallett and John Banville among the chosen.

Heatwave by Victor Jestin - Audiobook | Scribd Heatwave by Victor Jestin - Audiobook | Scribd

L’atmosfera del campeggio, la musica martellante sparata dagli altoparlanti, gli annunci ripetuti, gli animatori ossessivi, il senso di perenne festa, la vacanza che impone il divertimento a ogni costo… Niente di questo aiuta Léonard, che appare sempre più un pesce fuori dall’acqua. Ma è una sensazione che dura poche pagine. Non si tratta di quell’apatia esistenziale, di quell’indifferenza nei confronti del vivere. A beautiful narrative that puts into play the kind of guilt that won’t quit a boy who’s alienated from his world and resistant to all its codes.”— Telerama This a teen angsty version of Camus’ The Stranger. The narrator is a 17 year old boy on vacation, feeling completely isolated while surrounded by the revelry of others. He has a strange preoccupation with losing his virginity, which is really a silent cry for the attention of just anyone. And that’s about all I can say without revealing too much. It’s a good story, though slightly far-fetched at times. It certainly will be a summer none of the campers will ever forget!

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! The young author of this first novel keeps all promises, with writing of a rare precision, mature and carnal... Moving and cinematic’ La Vie For his first novel, Victor Jestin displays a stunning literary talent. It’s short, pitiless, polished, perfectly realized.”— Livres Hebdo Oscar committed suicide, and there is mention of another character being depressed. The boys don’t bother to ask how the girls feel, but we could venture a guess, it’s about the same. All of them are just yearning for a connection. It’s a shame that the group of teen boys thinks this means sex. And as all of them soon realize, an empty vessel cannot fill another empty vessel. The sex just makes them feel even more inadequate and alone.