The Heatwave by Kate Riordan

From Goodreads

Under the scorching French sun, a tense homecoming unearths a long-buried family secret in this deliciously propulsive beach read of a mother's greatest fear brought to life. 

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.

Rich in unforgettable characters, The Heatwave alternates between the past and present, grappling with what it means to love and fear a child in equal measure. With the lush landscape and nostalgia of a heady vacation read, Kate Riordan has woven a gripping page-turner with gorgeous prose that turns the idea of a summer novel on its head.

My thoughts

My thanks to the Author and the Publisher for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley. I gave this a 3.5 stars or 7/10.

Told in the first person, Sylvie the narrator of the story tells us her story and what happened to her first child Elodie. As she returns to her old family home in the South of France with her youngest daughter Emma, memories come flooding back of tragic mysterious events that surrounded the death of Elodie. Told as a dual time frame style story, the reader is fed just enough to hook you in and keep you turning the pages or in my case swiping the screen as I read this on my Kindle.

As Sylvie flicks from past to present in her narrative we learn that Elodie could be quite a manipulative daughter, who seemed to know how to get what she wanted most of the time. Some children always seem to know what to do to get their own way. Sylvie has always tried to protect Emma from what happened to her older sister, but will the truth come out as old memories are rekindled on the return to the property.

This was a well written story that grabs the reader, yet I was expecting a little more from it if I'm honest. Its' a perfect read for the summer evenings to take us away from our day to day life. Escape into the lives of the characters and the countryside in the South of France.