Heatwave

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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)

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 Culture Nascondere il corpo, invece di dare l’allarme, è senza dubbio partecipare alla morte. Anzi, quasi averla causata. When I Grow Up’ by Robert Scragg in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds)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. 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 It is the end of August and the long summer holidays are drawing to a close. Seventeen-year-old Leonard is on a camping holiday with his family in the South of France. Awkward and ill at ease, he is an outsider who creeps away from parties unnoticed after a couple of drinks. 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. At 25, Victor Jestin has written a Sagan-like novel. A Francoise Sagan of today under high heat, in the full sense of the word.”— Le Parisien Dimanche

The book was written in French (titled La Chaleur) and, of course, we read the translated version. That may have caused a couple of editing errors but, in general, I thought it was very well-written—especially considering the author wrote when he was just 23 years of age. Others must have agreed, as it won several awards, including the Prix Femina des Lycéens 2019 and the Prix de la vocation 2019. It was nominated for several other awards.

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A searing hot summer in the South of France: 17-year-old Léonard is spending the holidays on a camping ground with his parents and his siblings. We meet him around 24 hours before their departure, as Léo, by coincidence, witnesses the suicide of his friend Oscar. Paralyzed, he stands by as Oscar slowly strangles himself - and that's the opening scene of this short, impactful novella. Our protagonist doesn't dare to confess what he saw, even as the other guests and the police start searching for Oscar, he partakes in normal activities, joining the young crowd in their pursuit of parties, summer flings, and sex. The oppressive heat is joined by an oppressive tension, as Léo's feelings of guilt start to grow... Changeling’ by Bryony Pearce in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing) Ultimately, Heatwave is an intriguing thriller which examines good versus evil and humanity’s underlying barbarism when faced with unfamiliar situations. It also comments on societal pressure to conform and, on the other side of the spectrum, questions the artificial nature of people’s behaviour, their superficiality and their ability to ignore the issues they don’t want to deal with. For his first novel, Victor Jestin displays a stunning literary talent. It’s short, pitiless, polished, perfectly realized.”— Livres Hebdo