Road Kill

There are very few thriller writers who I feel as fiercely and passionately loyal to as Sabine Durrant. Every book is a gem, polished to perfection, dark in all the right ways and riven through with so much sharp humanity, intense atmosphere and spellbindingly beautiful writing. She is, it's not an exaggeration to say, my favourite thriller writer, full stop.

Road Kill is Sabine Durrant’s eighth work of dark psychological suspense. Her previous thrillers include Dead Heat, Lie with Me, which was a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller, and Sun Damage, which is currently in development with Bad Wolf and Disney. 
 
Before becoming a full-time novelist, Sabine Durrant worked in editorial at the Independent, the Sunday Times and the Guardian, where she also wrote the weekly ‘Sabine Durrant’ interview. She is the author of two works of general fiction, including the bestselling Having it and Eating it, and two Connie Pickles novels for young adults. Her essay ‘At Sea’, for the collection Truth or Dare, was a personal investigation into the life and death of her father, a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm, who disappeared off the Dorset coast a few months after she was born. 
 
Sabine Durrant lives in South London with her husband, three adult children, one dog and two cats.

'My favourite thriller writer, full stop' LISA JEWELL 
'An author in her prime' JENNIE GODFREY 
 
----------- 
 
It's the hottest summer on record. 
 
You'd planned to be in the south of France with your sister but your holiday has been cancelled. 
 
So now you're stuck in London. 
 
And then one evening you meet a man who offers to drive you to France. Go see your sister, he urges. Surprise her! 
 
Soon you're on the road with him. But the further south you drive, the more you start to worry. 
 
Who is this man really? 
 
Why does he seem to know so much about you and your sister? 
 
And most importantly, how much danger are you in? 
 
------- 
 
Praise for Sabine Durrant and Dead Heat: 
 
'No one captures the deadly foibles of the middle classes better than Sabine Durrant.’ ERIN KELLY 
 
'Tense, clever and so vividly written' RUTH MANCINI 
 
'Sun-drenched and dripping with suspense' LUCY CLARKE 
 
'No one writes sun-soaked seductive and obsession like Sabine Durrant' SARAH HILARY

Sabine Durrant

Expertly constructed and guilefully written, it inevitably reminds you of Patricia Highsmith, but also of The Great Gatsby

Incredibly atmospheric and oppressive - the heat, the relationships, the events - it’s all sticky and woozy and hot and sandy and salty and languorous . . . this is the perfect book to read on a sun lounger

With scintillating shades of The Great Gatsby, this intoxicating thriller is a superb study in menace

Durrant’s talent for conjuring the harsh beauty of Greece’s Mani Peninsula immediately immerses the reader . . . explosive

This slow-burn thriller gives White Lotus vibes thanks to the luxe setting on Greece’s Mani Peninsula

Durrant pairs taut psychological suspense with crisp, beautiful writing

Durrant’s cast of characters are intensely unlikeable and yet utterly irresistible

I loved this book. The descriptions are so beautiful that you almost don’t notice the brilliance of the plotting

A real scorcher. You won't want to miss this one!

Gloriously dark and wildly engrossing, I was swept up in the sticky, claustrophobic web of twisted emotions, unnerving obsessions, murder and lies that Sabine Durrant so brilliantly and skilfully creates in Dead Heat

Dead Heat is a sharply observed, sophisticated page-turner. Sun-drenched and dripping with suspense, this is the perfect summer read

No one writes suspense like Sabine Durrant. Dead Heat is perfection

An unputdownable, unguessable, sun-drenched thriller. No one captures the deadly foibles of the middle classes better than Sabine Durrant

No one writes sun-soaked seductive and obsession like Sabine Durrant. Better than every season of The White Lotus spun into one, and drenched with danger, sex, and revenge. Sensational summer reading

Tense, clever and so vividly written, I could really feel the deceit and betrayal sizzling under the hot Greek sun. I raced through it in one sitting

More hooks than a Greek fishing boat, a deliciously dark, modern Greek Gatsby, with a minotaur of a monster at its heart. Absolutely, page-turningly perfect. I burned my way through it

Compelling, evocative and fiendishly smart, this unsettling literary thriller is a five-star triumph.

Drenched in atmosphere and menace, with complicated characters who change complexion with the light, subtle dynamics playing out just under the surface, and a Greek setting to die for. Literally

I was gripped from the off by this twisting, beautifully written tale of love and friendship fracturing under the glare of the Greek sun and as the mood darkened and tensions rose I found I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I loved it!

Beautiful and evocative, this thriller hooked me with its dark and twisty take on love and obsession

Classy, cinematic and truly chilling, Dead Heat is a thriller it's going to be hard to beat this year. With shades of Patricia Highsmith, Sabine Durrant is an author in her prime

The splendid Durrant has Margaret Drabble’s eye for the sins and self-deceptions of the well-heeled classes, on top of a gift for generating suspense.

Sabine Durrant is a key talent in the UK crime scene, here allowing us to relish the bad behaviour of her not very likeable protagonist in a plot that pleasingly evokes F. Scott Fitzgerald

A little bit Ripley and a lot Gatsby, it's definitely one for your sun lounger

This red hot read is perfect sun lounger material, as the twists and turns of the plot keep you hooked.

'A real scorcher. You won't want to miss this one!' HARLAN COBEN 
'Gloriously dark and wildly engrossing' LISA JEWELL 
'Sun-drenched and dripping with suspense, this is the perfect summer read’ LUCY CLARKE 
 
---- 
 
Former journalist Matt Grimshaw's life is at a low ebb. He's been 'let go' by the paper where he's worked for years, and his relationship with his long-term girlfriend has come unstuck. 
 
So when an invitation arrives from his two closest friends, Celia and Adam Murphy, to join them at their house in Greece, he jumps at it. 
 
It may be harsh and unwelcoming on the Mani Peninsula but Matt determines to stay there for the whole summer and to write his much put-off screen-play. 
 
But then the Murphys plus children arrive, and a wealthy newcomer to the area starts throwing loud and lavish parties in his big house across the bay. 
 
As the nights become hotter and the parties wilder, everyone's motivations darken. Envy rises, resentments grow - until a terrible accident stops the summer in its tracks. 
 
At least, it looks like an accident… 
 
Set over one blazing Mediterranean summer, Sabine Durrant’s new thriller is tense, claustrophobic and utterly gripping.

Sabine Durrant

Praise for Dead Heat

Expertly constructed and guilefully written, it inevitably reminds you of Patricia Highsmith, but also of The Great Gatsby

Incredibly atmospheric and oppressive - the heat, the relationships, the events - it’s all sticky and woozy and hot and sandy and salty and languorous . . . this is the perfect book to read on a sun lounger

With scintillating shades of The Great Gatsby, this intoxicating thriller is a superb study in menace

Expertly constructed and guilefully written, it inevitably reminds you of Patricia Highsmith, but also of The Great Gatsby

Incredibly atmospheric and oppressive - the heat, the relationships, the events - it’s all sticky and woozy and hot and sandy and salty and languorous . . . this is the perfect book to read on a sun lounger

With scintillating shades of The Great Gatsby, this intoxicating thriller is a superb study in menace

Expertly constructed and guilefully written, it inevitably reminds you of Patricia Highsmith, but also of The Great Gatsby

Incredibly atmospheric and oppressive - the heat, the relationships, the events - it’s all sticky and woozy and hot and sandy and salty and languorous . . . this is the perfect book to read on a sun lounger

With scintillating shades of The Great Gatsby, this intoxicating thriller is a superb study in menace

Books by Sabine Durrant

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter