Heatwave: An Evening Standard 'Best New Book' of 2021

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Author Victor Jestin excels at creating a thoroughly claustrophobic atmosphere. He describes the hottest day the country has known in 17 years and we can feel the sweltering heat, smell the suntan lotion and hear the buzz of people converging at the camp and on the beach. The carefree and cheerful mood stands in strong contrast to the death of Oscar. The campers remain oblivious to it and, understandably, carry on with their frivolity regardless. Ma su Leonard sembra incombere qualcosa di più ampio, di più spaventoso e opprimente come il caldo di quello scorcio di estate. Un caldo persecutorio che può raggiungere un parossismo senza fine. The headline Gold Dagger, awarded for the crime novel of the year, sees Hawkins nominated for A Slow Fire Burning (Doubleday), alongside Billingham’s Rabbit Hole (Sphere) and Imran Mahmood’s I Know What I Saw (Raven). Ray Celestin is also in contention for the award for Sunset Swing (Mantle), which has also received nominations for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for thriller of the year, and the Historical Dagger. 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. 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.

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

Jestin’s charged and chilling debut turns on a stifling vacation that descends from purgatory into a nightmarish inferno.” Victor Jestin portrays with cruel exactitude the throes of an adolescent trapped in a secret too heavy to bear.”— L’Obs I received a reviewer copy of this book to read as part of the Tandem collective UK readalong in exchange for an honest review. 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 The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Murders that Stunned an Empire , Julie Kavanagh (Grove Press UK)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 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. 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. Victor Jestin portrays with cruel exactitude the throes of an adolescent trapped in a secret too heavy to bear’ L’Obs A literary sensation in France, Heatwave is an unsettling and evocative novel that examines our darkest impulses.

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

I heard singing through the canvas, a long line of people dancing around my tent. I’m a little older now. I kissed a girl, then lost her. Oscar died. Oscar is dead because of me, because I did nothing. Because I didn’t move. And I didn’t move because at that moment I couldn’t. I would rather have died like him, and we could have watched each other die while the others danced.” 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 This isn’t a conventional crime novel. There’s no doubt as to the crime committed or who is complicit. In fact, it’s stated up front in this captivating first paragraph: “Oscar is dead because I watched him die and did nothing. He was strangled by the ropes of a swing, like one of those children you read about in the newspapers.” Instead, it explores the main character’s behaviour and reaction to Oscar’s death. There’s no resolution, no comfort here and the reader will be left to make their own conclusion. Changeling’ by Bryony Pearce in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing) Booker Prize-winner Banville is a heavyweight contender on the Historical Dagger longlist for April in Spain (Faber), while the Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger sees the award-winning Finnish author Antti Tuomainen with The Rabbit Factor (Orenda Books) and the French author Victor Jestin, for his dark, coming-of-age-novel Heatwave (Scribner) in the longlist .The Clifton Vampire’ by TE Kinsey in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds)

Heatwave: The most deliciously dark beach read of the summer

Flesh of a Fancy Woman’ by Paul Magrs in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing) Tense and brief, this text plays with the codes of a first novel to paint a portrait of a sad and aloof teenager’ L’Humanite 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 CultureBlindsided’ by Caroline England in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing) You devour this book, but its effects linger, so strongly does it reverberate with destinies sacrificed to the yawn of the void.” —Le Point