'Barkworth is excruciatingly good... An impressive first book' OBSERVER
A COSMOPOLITAN BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER 2020 pick
HEAT magazine's READ OF THE WEEK - 'the evocative one'
'I wanted to stay within its pages forever' CLARE MACKINTOSH

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This summer burns with secrets...

It is too hot to sleep. To work. To be questioned time and again by the police.

At the beginning of a stifling, sultry summer, everything shifts irrevocably when Lily doesn't come home one afternoon.

Rachel is Lily's teacher. Her daughter Mia is Lily's best friend. The girls are fifteen - almost women, still children.

As Rachel becomes increasingly fixated on Lily's absence, she finds herself breaking fragile trusts and confronting impossible choices she never thought she'd face.

It wasn't supposed to happen like this.

Intoxicating and compulsive, Heatstroke is a darkly gripping, thought-provoking novel of crossed boundaries, power and betrayal, that plays with expectations at every turn.

FOR FANS OF ZOE HELLER, EMMA CLINE, EXPECTATION AND MY DARK VANESSA.

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'Stylish and sensual' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE

'A summer sizzler... with twists, turns and revelations in all the right places' EVENING STANDARD

'What to read next IF YOU LOVED THREE WOMEN by Lisa Taddeo' WHISTLES newsletter

'A thrilling look at mothers and daughters, adolescence, sex, suburbia and secrets' NELL FRIZZELL

'Sexy, sensual, difficult, provocative...definitely one of the best reads of the summer' LAURA JANE WILLIAMS

'Pulls you into its sweaty interior and keeps you gripped' RENEE KNIGHT

'I couldn't tear myself away' ERIN KELLY

'I am addicted!... A gripping, dark and twisty read with beautiful, poetic writing' EMMA GANNON

'Compulsive, sticky and full of gorgeous writing' KIRSTIN INNES

'A scorching tale of obsession, betrayal and the wounds that mothers and daughters inflict on each other' TAMMY COHEN

About the Author
Hazel grew up in Stirlingshire and North Yorkshire before studying English at Oxford. She then moved to London where she spent her days working as a cultural consultant, and her nights dancing in a pop band at glam rock clubs. Hazel is a graduate of both the Oxford University MSt in Creative Writing and the Curtis Brown Creative Novel-Writing course. She now works in Oxford, where she lives with her partner. Heatstroke is her first novel.

Reviews
Barkworth is excruciatingly good at encapsulating that point in life where Mia and Lily stand - on the edge of growing up... Intense and claustrophobic, this is an impressive first book * Observer *
A sultry, stifling debut * Cosmopolitan *
Gripping and intensely atmospheric... beautifully explores the complicated relationship between mothers and teenage daughters... you won't want to put this down * Heat *
A summer sizzler... with twists, turns and revelations in all the right places...This is Barkworth's first novel and she's hit the format out of the park * Evening Standard *
An atmospheric read that will draw you into its tangled web * Woman & Home *
Dark and unsettling * Red *
Barkworth has a pinsharp eye for detail...it's propulsive, thought-provoking and atmospheric * Daily Mail *

Read if you liked Big Little Lies... A torrid, tense story about forbidden passions, played out over one steamy summer

* Best *
A bold and beautifully written novel of desire and danger * Mail on Sunday *
Painfully real, and so beautifully written I wanted to stay within its pages forever. Heatstroke is unsettling, challenging and utterly immersive -- Clare Mackintosh
Stylish and sensual -- Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Tense, sultry, unsettling, sweaty and evocative . . . A thrilling look at mothers and daughters, adolescence, sex, suburbia and secrets -- Nell Frizzell
Pulls you into its sweaty interior and keeps you gripped to the end. Darkly atmospheric and so well written -- Renee Knight
Sexy, sensual, difficult, provocative - I was hooked for every twist, turn and revelation. This is definitely one of the best reads of the summer. I was blown away -- Laura Jane Williams
I am addicted!... A gripping, dark and twisty read with beautiful, poetic writing -- Emma Gannon
I gulped this whole thing down in one sitting. It's compulsive, sticky and full of gorgeous writing -- Kirstin Innes
Raw, unsparing and almost unbearably tender. Perfect sentences swim gracefully across every page, overlaying a narrative that delights in wrong-footing the readers' assumptions. I couldn't tear myself away -- Erin Kelly
A scorching tale of obsession, betrayal and the wounds that mothers and daughters inflict on each other in the name of love -- Tammy Cohen
Fevered and claustrophobic -- Jane Healey, author of The Animals at Lockwood Manor



Book Information
ISBN 9781472265609
Author Hazel Barkworth
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint Headline Review
Publisher Headline Publishing Group
Weight(grams) 520g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 160mm * 30mm