A strong contemporary novel; a debut from an author with a brilliant, highly original voice. Now shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger award. It was hot everywhere that year. During the long summer holidays the days rolled by in blue and gold, the sun bouncing off the dustbins and burning into windscreens. By the end of that summer, three of us were dead. Anita's mother has just died. The family has moved to a new town, a new home, and a new neighbourhood. The long school holidays are about to start and the summer stretches out interminably in front of them.

Kyle lives across the road from Anita. Cool, surly, laconic, he knows all the places to hide. He says the area between the houses and the river is littered with hidden, disused mines; a perfect playground for restless kids with nothing better to do. But what they don't know is that these mines will form the scene of the most unsettling crime this community has ever known. This summer everything will change. This summer, the dead days have come home to stay. Editor, Clare Hey, says:When the first manuscript of 'The Dead of Summer' came in I started reading and was hooked immediately by the pace of the story and the voice of the narrator. I have never come across a book which was so difficult to put down, a story that kept me turning the pages.

We shared 'The Dead of Summer' with people across HarperCollins and soon everyone was talking about it. If you liked Lionel Shriver's 'We Need to Talk About Kevin', Iain Banks' 'The Wasp Factory', or even Jodi Picoult's 'Perfect Match', you will love 'The Dead of Summer'. But, make sure you have nothing else planned because once you start this book, you won't be able to stop until you reach the end. Competition: Alice Sebold, Iain Banks, Jodi Picoult, Martin Amis, Will Self.