The Heatwave by Katerina Diamond

Will you #SurviveTheHeatwave

In the wake of the crime that rocked her community, Felicity fled, knowing more than she let on. But sixteen years later, her new life is shattered by the news that a second girl has gone missing in her hometown. Now Felicity must go back, to face the truth about what happened all those years ago. Only she holds the answers – and they’re more shocking than anyone could imagine. The heatwave is back. And so is the killer.

I’m a huge Katerina Diamond fan and I’ve been loving her Miles and Grey series which I have followed religiously since The Teacher. So I was thrilled to see that she had written her first standalone psychological but also worried that it wouldn’t live up to the series I love. But if you feel the same then please don’t worry-The Heatwave is a brilliant read that grabs you from the very first page-rather like the fate of the girl we first meet as she is drugged and abducted by an unknown assailant.

The Heatwave is a duel timeline thriller set in the present, when a missing girl forces Felicity to confront her past by returning to her hometown, and in the past where Felicity and her best friend make a shocking discovery. Felicity was a difficult character to take to initially especially as I found her sudden departure from her home in the Lake District a very strange decision to make! Her family are left in the lurch as she rushes back to her hometown the moment she hears a girl has gone missing in similar circumstances to a disappearance that happened 16 years previously. It’s obvious that something personal has dragged her back but who or what was the real puzzle for me here. Looking back there were clues sprinkled throughout the storyline but I hadn’t connected all the dots before the big final reveal so what a shocker it was! Katerina Diamond leads her readers through a maze of intrigue before distancing herself and leaving us to find our own way out of the tangled mess she left in her wake.

I read this in one sitting whilst spending an afternoon reading in the beautiful sunshine. It was the perfect setting for a book set in a heatwave and so I just couldn’t stop until I got to the last page! The Heatwave is a gripping thriller, stylishly plotted with a setting that rang true. The teenage characters especially felt authentic and were well developed, their actions may not have been the right ones but it made for realistic choices being made…and possibly regretted!

I absolutely loved this book and hope Katerina Diamond writes more standalones in the future.

Katerina Diamond burst onto the crime scene with her debut The Teacher, which became a Sunday Times bestseller and a number one Kindle bestseller. It was longlisted for the CWA John Creasey Debut Dagger Award and the Hotel Chocolat Award for ‘darkest moment’. The Teacher was followed by sequels The Secret, The Angel, The Promise, Truth or Die and Woman in the Water, all of which featured detectives Adrian Miles and Imogen Grey. The Heatwave is her first standalone thriller.