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Dead Heat

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

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.

'A real scorcher. You won't want to miss this one!' HARLAN COBEN
'Gloriously dark and wildly engrossing' LISA JEWELL
'Sun-drenched and dripping with suspense, this is the perfect summer read’ LUCY CLARKE

© Sabine Durrant 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critics Review

I loved this book. The descriptions are so beautiful that you almost don’t notice the brilliance of the plotting
Elly Griffiths
A real scorcher. You won't want to miss this one!
Harlan Coben
Gloriously dark and wildly engrossing, I was swept up in the sticky, claustrophobic web of twisted emotions, unnerving obsessions, murder and lies that Sabine Durrant so brilliantly and skilfully creates in Dead Heat
Lisa Jewell
Dead Heat is a sharply observed, sophisticated page-turner. Sun-drenched and dripping with suspense, this is the perfect summer read
Lucy Clarke
No one writes suspense like Sabine Durrant. Dead Heat is perfection
Clare Mackintosh
An unputdownable, unguessable, sun-drenched thriller. No one captures the deadly foibles of the middle classes better than Sabine Durrant
Erin Kelly
No one writes sun-soaked seductive and obsession like Sabine Durrant. Better than every season of The White Lotus spun into one, and drenched with danger, sex, and revenge. Sensational summer reading
Sarah Hilary
Tense, clever and so vividly written, I could really feel the deceit and betrayal sizzling under the hot Greek sun. I raced through it in one sitting
Ruth Mancini
More hooks than a Greek fishing boat, a deliciously dark, modern Greek Gatsby, with a minotaur of a monster at its heart. Absolutely, page-turningly perfect. I burned my way through it
Julia Crouch
Compelling, evocative and fiendishly smart, this unsettling literary thriller is a five-star triumph.
Isabelle Broom

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