22 June 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-0354-0236-6 (HB)
London, high summer, the temperature in the high 30s and rising. And there’s a killer on the loose, raping and murdering young women.
Em has lost her job because her predatory boss has accused her of stalking him. Her equally predatory landlord expects her to vacate her room when his girlfriend visits. The city is in gridlock because train and bus drivers are refusing to work in the heat. And she needs to get to the airport to fly to Spain for her sister’s wedding.
Em has no choice but to walk to the airport. Along the way she gets help and support from Kate and Dante, former workmates; from Moby, a homeless man she has befriended; and from Rose, on her way home after a disappointing night out. But she also encounters Matt and Paul, the predatory landlord and boss, and various unnamed men who can’t see the difference between teasing and bullying.
As the temperature rises, so does the tension level, in the city and in Em’s life, and eventually she is driven to desperate measures. It all comes to a head at a sunset vigil for the murdered women, and Em suddenly finds she has become its focus – alien territory for a young woman who was taught to stay in the background and not draw attention to herself.
Em and her supporters are very real people, and it’s impossible not to root for them. The abusive men are less rounded, but just as recognizable. And London, wearing its sweatiest, most oppressive summer face, becomes a character in its own right.
The whole novel is part one woman’s nightmare day, part shout-out for female solidarity in the face of male abuse. Snippets from Em’s Twitter feed illustrate both sides of the argument, but though it’s plain whose side Natali Simmonds is on she never resorts to tub-thumping or polemic. She has written crime fiction in its broadest sense, ranging from the murdered women to the greatest crime of all, man’s inhumanity to man, or in this case woman. The dramatic ending is the best of its kind: I didn’t see it coming, but when it did, there was no other way it could have happened.
This isn’t just a taut, edgy
psychological thriller; it’s a novel for the Me Too generation. It made me want
to weep and cheer, both at the same time.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick
Natali Simmonds began her career in glossy magazines, then went on to manage marketing campaigns for big brands. She's now a creative brand consultant, freelance writer, and fiction author, writing gritty and unflinching stories full of complex women and page-turning suspense (and sometimes a little magic). Simmonds’ dark, feminist thriller debut, Good Girls Die Last, has been optioned for a television series by STV. As N J Simmonds, Natali penned the fantasy trilogy The Path Keeper and Son of Secrets. She's a columnist for Kings College London’s 'Inspire The Mind' magazine, and lectures for Raindance Film School. Originally from London, Natali now divides her time between Spain, the UK, and the Netherlands.
Lynne Patrick has been a
writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short
stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She
crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to
have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in
Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.
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