The Heatwave

Every book on kindle has been crap lately, in my opinion.So when I discovered this book by Kate Reardon I was thrilled. Fabulous book, great story, filled with drama and intrigue. I cannot wait for more books by this author!

The Heatwave by Kate Riordan is an atmospheric domestic mystery set in the French countryside.In 1993, Sylvie Durand and her thirteen year old daughter Emma return to the family estate in France. Sylvie has not been back since fleeing from the home ten years earlier. She and her now ex-husband Greg were at one time blissfully happy but their marriage eroded due their oldest daughter Elodie’s disturbing behavior. Emma has no memories of the older sister she idolizes and Sylvie fears her youngest daughter’s forgotten few years in France will rise to the surface. What is Sylvie keeping from Emma?Chapters flashback to various times spanning from the late sixties to the early eighties. After their marriage, Sylvie and Greg are excited about the impending birth of their first child. But over the years, Sylvie becomes more and more troubled by Elodie’s actions but Greg does believe there is anything to worry about. But Greg is gone more often than he is home and Sylvie is exhausted by Elodie’s exploits. And she is very careful to keep a close eye on Emma.Narrated by Sylvie, The Heatwave is a slow burning (in more ways than one) mystery. Sylvie’s account of their years in France are harrowing and a heavy pall hangs over her return with Emma. With unexpected plot twists and plenty of tension, Kate Riordan brings this mystery to an intriguing conclusion. I enjoyed and recommend this suspenseful mystery to readers of genre.I received a complimentary copy for review

The Heatwave is an atmospheric thriller that takes place in southern France. This book is told in second person POV from the main character, Sylvie, to her second born daughter, Emma. The book goes back and forth from the past to the present as this slow burn unfolds. Just when you think you are about to find out something important, the author switches timelines. This worked to build the suspense and my intrigue with the book. Part one had me. I felt the sense of dread, the heat of southern France, the guilt and conflict from the main character, and the eerie suspense... Part two did not go where I expected the story to go, and for me, was a bit of a let down. The ending felt weak and flat and could have been much more, it just didn't work for me.

Excellent as usual

THE HEATWAVE by Kate RiordanElodie was different.They said she wasn’t like everyone else. She didn’t think the same. She manipulated people. And when they said all of this, they they said it to Sylvie’s face. The one that looked so much like her.The question is: Was there ever a chance for her or really for anyone?I really enjoyed this visit to an eerie family home in the South of France. I thought it had just the right amount of suspense and mysterious elements.The setting was perfection and I found it be almost its own character. It was interwoven in dialogue and expressed through characterization of both humans and inert objects. The setting was probably my favorite part.I also found it super interesting to get a fictional take on how a child like this or an experience like this with motherhood might be perceived in a different country.Thanks to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the advanced copy!THE HEATWAVE…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

THE HEATWAVE is a completely absorbing family drama and simmering psychological thriller.In the summer of 1993, Sylvie and her teenage daughter, Emma, return to their home in the South of France after a ten year absence. After she learns of some vandalism on the property, Sylvie decides it's time to fix up La Reverie and sell it. This is a difficult place to face again, as it's filled with painful memories of the tragedy involving her troubled first child, Elodie. Emma remembers very little about her older sister, and Sylvie's not sure how much longer she can shield her from their disturbing family secrets.The story is told from Sylvie's point of view in alternating time periods — during the summer of 1993, and then 1968 forward — as we learn about the disturbing mother/daughter relationship between Sylvie and Elodie during her childhood. What does a mother do if her child is evil? How far would she go to protect one daughter from the other? Elodie's character was truly creepy! The tension surrounding what she might do next was unsettling.THE HEATWAVE is an atmospheric Gothic suspense with an amazing and unique setting. The characters and their conflicts are memorable, the writing and descriptions are gorgeous (I enjoyed the French mixed in), and the reveal at the end was perfect. Highly recommended.Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a digital copy of this book for review purposes. Thoughts are my own.

Part 1 of this story was filled with an overwhelming sense of foreboding. Sylvie and her young teen daughter, Emma, have returned to their past family home in the South of France. A home that is filled with haunting memories of the daughter and sister who died at fourteen.Part 2 felt like a ticking time bomb. I was just holding my breath waiting for everything to explode.I really enjoyed Riordan's well-developed characters. She created such emotional depth within this dysfunctional family. I also felt as if La Reverie (the house) was a character in itself - claustrophobic and eerie.This was an incredibly quick read even though the plot was more of slow-burn. I had a really difficult time putting it down one night with only 40 pages left. It was just one of those stories I felt compelled to keep reading.Unfortunately, the ending felt abrupt and semi underwhelming. I think I was expecting something more dramatic and evocative. Still a great summer read!Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for the gifted copy!

Elodie is beautiful. Elodie is smart. Elodie is troubled. Elodie is dead.Sylvie hasn’t been back to her crumbled French family home in years. Not since the death of her eldest daughter.Every corner of the house feels haunted by her memory. Memories that she has tried to forget.But as the temperature rises and forest fires rage, a long buried family secret is about to come to light.Because there is something that Sylvie has been hiding about what really happened that summer.What a read!!! I was not expecting the intensiveness. The gripping nature of how its written and the way every single chapter leaves you wanting more. This book is honestly the best book I have read this year to date. It is atmospheric, thrilling, sinister and completely unputdownable.I loved the characters, each one adding to the scene and becoming a crucial part of the puzzle perfectly. I loved the captive imaginative nature in the way it explained France, the weather, the hotness and the big old house that sets the scene for this novel.Part of me wanted long hot summers in the sun following reading this, the other part of me wants to run a mile. It is so well written, fluctuating from the 1970’s to the 90’s which in the book is present day. It takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions. Anger, fear, love and anticipation all experienced between the pages. It flows perfectly so you always knows what part of the story you are at judging by the date. This is the perfect summer read.

4 star review. This was a Richard and Judy UK Book Club selection for Autumn 2020, which put it on my radar. Sylvie and her daughter Emma live in London and her ex lives in Paris. They left the family home La Reverie 10 years before and never went back, after the death of Sylvie's older daughter Elodie and the breakup of her marriage. But there is a fire in the house in France and it needs to be sold, so the two go back. But there is a slight air of menace - Sylvie feels watched all the time, clocks set themselves, enough little things to put Sylvie on edge. And there are a few twists and turns that keep the reader turning the pages to see what happens next. This was a very good little thriller and I enjoyed it.

The Heatwave follows the story of Sylvie; living in London, she has fled her native France after the tragic loss of her daughter Elodie 10 years ago. Her marriage has broken down but she has rebuilt her life with her younger daughter Emma, now 14.But at the beginning of the summer an unexpected phone call brings the past into the present. Sylvie’s family home, where Elodie died in mysterious circumstances.the home the family have left empty, needs her attention. There has been a small fire, but it is time the house is sold. So reluctantly Sylvie takes Emma and heads south, to Provence, where an extreme heatwave and hill fires add to an already stressful summer.Once back in the village Sylvie is unable to escape the past she has kept hidden. Reminders of her marriage and Elodie assail her and it becomes clear that Elodie was no ordinary child. Emma has very little understanding of what happened to her much older sister and the strain of finding a way to tell her youngest daughter the truth behind to tell on Sylvie.There are whispers in the village about the past and the present, and the mystery’s about what exactly happened to the beautiful but difficult Elodie deepens with each page.The story unfolds slowly. Told using a dual timeframe the plotting is pitch perfect. Flashbacks to Elodie’s childhood show Sylvie as a young mother, often left alone as her husband Greg travels lbuilding his antiques business. And she is left with Elodie; a child unlike any other. Elodie is self contained, beautiful and manipulative, and it is Sylvie who she unsettles the most.As the incidents of strange and disturbing behaviour stack up Sylvie is left fighting her husband, desperate to make him accept their daughter is not like other children. Desperate to avoid the inevitable.The level of tension within this book is delicious! From the outset you know that there is a hidden tragedy. As readers we have some sketchy details, but just the merest of outlines, and like Emma, the reader is trying to fill in the blanks.The juxtaposition of the past and present tantalises and teases, adding just enough detail but pulling away just when you think you are almost there! There are twists and turns on the way to the truth and the intensity of the heat, the building distant fires, add to the sense of tension. Here is a sense of the reader racing to the truth before it’s too late.This is a novel about close relationships, especially that unique bond between mothers and daughters. There is a sense in this novel of strong women. Women who are perceptive, who understand their children in a way that others don’t. This novel explores what happens when the mother/child bond is tested. What happens when a child is not as the rest of the world perceives? When a mother is pulled in two directions, both by the desire to protect her daughter but also by the fear of what she might do?This book is a delight. It is a book to lose yourself in. I sat down to read it on a windswept, rain soaked Cumbrian day and was immediately transported to sun bleached Provence. The details are evocative, heady and disturbing. You aren’t just reading this story, you are living it. And it is all the more powerful for that.

Some of the descriptive writing is excellent. The author conjures up the oppressive sultry heat of southern France very well and I could almost imagine myself there. Sadly the plot is not nearly as good as the writing and it is distinctly lacking in real suspense.

What must it be like to be the parent of a child who turns out bad despite you doing your very best for them? With pitch-perfect aplomb, this captivating, mesmeric novel bores right to the very centre of such a nightmarish scenario.Ever so patiently, through two timelines — past and present — Riordan unwraps the story of Elodie, a girl with different coloured eyes, one amber, one blue, her beauty belying the wickedness beneath it. Told from the point of view of Elodie’s mother Sylvie, against a backdrop of a boiling-hot, feverish South of France where the wildfires seething in the hills are growing ever closer, this is page-turning stuff of the very highest quality.If you’re looking for something as good as 'The Push' by Ashley Audrain, this more than measures up, but it’s in a class of its own too, examining the child-as-monster theme in a fresh and compelling way that convinces. A highly recommended read.