Publication Date January 23, 2024
Over the past several years, I have enjoyed several books by Australian author Jane Harper, and she has become one of my favorite authors. The Dry, Force of Nature, and The Lost Man (all of which featured Federal Investigator Aaron Falk) were all five-star reads…and while I admit to being “an easy grader,” they all really were terrific. While 2021’s The Survivors featured a different protagonist, but it was full of the same beautiful writing, stunning depiction of setting so vivid it became a character on its own, and plot surprises featuring interesting characters that the reader comes to KNOW. So when I read that there was a debut novel from Sarah-Jane Collins, another female author from Australia, I was intrigued. Then, I read that her book Radiant Heat was “a crime story inspired by devastating bushfires in her native Australia,” I was eager to read the copy I received from Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
NPR’s Scott Simon said “Sarah-Jane Collins’ novel Radiant Heat begins with her protagonist, Alison King, who is an artist, still alive and finally breathing air after she’s been hiding under a wet blanket from a wildfire. She begins to move a round, then finds a car in her driveway. A woman is dead inside. She is a stranger to Alison. But why does she have Alison’s name and address in her purse?”
The dead woman, Simone, is also someone who looks a LOT like Allison. Plus, she lived in the same city of Cairns in Queensland (apparently pronounced “Cans” — who knew?). Allison deals with police who at first sort of pat her on the head and say “bless your Heart,” but eventually a string of events convinces everyone that there is some serious stuff going on, and a terrific mystery is revealed.unfolds. Throughout, the setting is so vivid it is a character on its own, and the two women at the heart of the story, Allison and Simone, are surrounded by injustice and the subsequent search for resolution.
Collins worked at a newspaper around the time of one of Australia’s recent horrific bushfires, and as she explains, it was while “covering the court system and being exposed to some of the more upsetting elements of criminal law and seeing the extent of violence against women in Australia. Even when it is reported you don’t really – you just get the tip. You’re not seeing the whole iceberg, essentially. And so because I was sort of doused in it every single day, it was – it’s quite confronting. And that was something that also stayed with me and very much informs what happens in “Radiant Heat.” (from Mr. Simon’s interview with Ms. Collins on NPR).
Difficult – no, impossible to say more without spoilers, but I have found another terrific Australian author! I look forward to her next book! Five stars.
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