
Dead Heat
Sabine Durrant(Author)
Penguin (Cornerstone) (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 30. July 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-1-80495-464-5 (ISBN)
Description
Under the searing sun, secrets simmer and betrayal lies thick in this claustrophobic, explosive new thriller from Sunday Times bestselling author Sabine Durrant.
'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.
-----
Praise for Dead Heat . . .
'No one writes suspense like Sabine Durrant. Dead Heat is perfection' Clare Mackintosh, Sunday Times bestselling author of A Game of Lies
'I loved this book. The descriptions are so beautiful that you almost don't notice the brilliance of the plotting' Elly Griffiths
'Better than every season of The White Lotus spun into one, and drenched with danger, sex, and revenge. Sensational summer reading' Sarah Hilary, author of Black Thorn
'A deliciously dark, modern Greek Gatsby' Julia Crouch, author of The Surprise Party
'Tense, clever and so vividly written' Ruth Mancini, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Woman on the Ledge
'An unputdownable, unguessable, sun-drenched thriller' Erin Kelly, bestselling author of He Said She Said
'Drenched in atmosphere and menace with a Greek setting to die for. Literally.' Tammy Cohen, The Wedding Party
'Compelling, evocative and fiendishly smart, this unsettling literary thriller is a five-star triumph' Isabelle Broom, author of The Orange House
'I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I loved it!' Marika Cobbold, author of On Hampstead Heath
'A genius story of infatuation and twisted love, as brooding as a Greek heatwave' Jane Thynne, author of Midnight in Vienna
'Dangerously addictive' Esther Freud, author of My Sister and Other Lovers
'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.
-----
Praise for Dead Heat . . .
'No one writes suspense like Sabine Durrant. Dead Heat is perfection' Clare Mackintosh, Sunday Times bestselling author of A Game of Lies
'I loved this book. The descriptions are so beautiful that you almost don't notice the brilliance of the plotting' Elly Griffiths
'Better than every season of The White Lotus spun into one, and drenched with danger, sex, and revenge. Sensational summer reading' Sarah Hilary, author of Black Thorn
'A deliciously dark, modern Greek Gatsby' Julia Crouch, author of The Surprise Party
'Tense, clever and so vividly written' Ruth Mancini, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Woman on the Ledge
'An unputdownable, unguessable, sun-drenched thriller' Erin Kelly, bestselling author of He Said She Said
'Drenched in atmosphere and menace with a Greek setting to die for. Literally.' Tammy Cohen, The Wedding Party
'Compelling, evocative and fiendishly smart, this unsettling literary thriller is a five-star triumph' Isabelle Broom, author of The Orange House
'I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I loved it!' Marika Cobbold, author of On Hampstead Heath
'A genius story of infatuation and twisted love, as brooding as a Greek heatwave' Jane Thynne, author of Midnight in Vienna
'Dangerously addictive' Esther Freud, author of My Sister and Other Lovers
Reviews / Votes
I loved this book. The descriptions are so beautiful that you almost don't notice the brilliance of the plotting * Elly Griffiths * A real scorcher. You won't want to miss this one! * Harlan Coben * 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 * Lisa Jewell * Dead Heat is a sharply observed, sophisticated page-turner. Sun-drenched and dripping with suspense, this is the perfect summer read * Lucy Clarke * No one writes suspense like Sabine Durrant. Dead Heat is perfection * Clare Mackintosh * An unputdownable, unguessable, sun-drenched thriller. No one captures the deadly foibles of the middle classes better than Sabine Durrant * Erin Kelly * 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 * Sarah Hilary * 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 * Ruth Mancini * 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 * Julia Crouch * Compelling, evocative and fiendishly smart, this unsettling literary thriller is a five-star triumph. * Isabelle Broom *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Cornerstone
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
500 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80495-464-5 (9781804954645)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions



Sabine Durrant
Dead Heat
The gripping must-read crime thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Lie With Me
E-Book
03/2026
Penguin (Cornerstone)
€12.99
Available for download
Person
Dead Heat is Sabine Durrant's seventh work of dark psychological suspense. Its setting, part of the Greek Peloponnese, has obsessed her since she read Patrick Leigh Fermor's travel book The Mani in her twenties. Her previous thrillers include Lie with Me which was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, and Sun Damage, which was subject to a fierce film and TV bidding war and is currently in production 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 with subjects as diverse as Archbishop Runcie, Stella McCartney and Jeff Goldblum. She has written 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.
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 with subjects as diverse as Archbishop Runcie, Stella McCartney and Jeff Goldblum. She has written 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.