Radiant Heat

August 1, 2023

Having survived a forest fire that devastates the southeastern Australian state of Victoria by lying wrapped in wet woolen blankets on her bathroom floor, Alison stumbles outside to find a shiny red car in her driveway with a dead woman inside whose purse contains a crumbled piece of paper with Alison's name and address. Alison doesn't know her, but trouble will soon be coming her way. Award-winning Meanjin (Brisbane)-born, New York City-based writer/editor Collins looks promising; the publisher has bought up two of her titles. Prepub Alert.

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Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 13, 2023
Collins delivers a clever, unsettling debut about the mysterious connection between two apparent strangers. Australian artist Alison King has barely survived a brushfire that devastated her small town of Lake Bend. After covering herself in a bathwater-soaked blanket while the flames ravaged her home, she’s emerged safely, only to find a soot-covered car near the ruins of her house that contains a strange woman’s corpse. Alison can’t spot an obvious cause of the woman’s death, but gets a shock when she looks in the dead woman’s wallet: beneath a driver’s license IDing the dead woman as Simone Arnold is a paper bearing Alison’s own name and home address. The police are curious about why Simone would have resolved to visit a perfect stranger, curiosity that blossoms into suspicion after they discover that, though Alison and Simone had once lived in the same apartment building, Alison insists they’ve never met. As Alison chases down more information about Simone to satisfy personal curiosity and clear herself of wrongdoing, she slowly uncovers uncomfortable points of connection between Simone and herself. Nimbly balancing character study and straight-up mystery, Collins is patient with her reveals, but never at the expense of the book’s steady momentum. This is a writer to watch. Agent: Mina Hamedi, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

Starred review from November 1, 2023

DEBUT Alison King survives an Australian bush fire by covering herself in a wet blanket and sheltering in her bathtub. When she emerges, she finds a car in her driveway and a dead woman in it. Her ID says she's Simone Arnold, but she has papers with Alison's name and address on them. Alison doesn't know her, but she notices the woman resembles her, and the cops take notice of that as well. Nothing strikes a chord with Alison until she learns Simone was fleeing from an abusive boyfriend. Alison had done the same, returning to her distant home to get away from him. Alison realizes that her and Simone's abuser is the same man, although he used a different name, and that she is still in danger. Because of her trust issues, she doesn't reveal her fears to the police, but instead sets off on a fruitless attempt to hide from a relentless stalker who is on her trail. VERDICT The claustrophobic atmosphere of a raging wildfire is handled well. Fans of Jane Harper's Australian novels will want to try this debut featuring an unreliable narrator.--Lesa Holstine

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2023
An Australian bushfire sets off a mystery. Alison King has moved back into her childhood home in Lake Bend, a small town outside Melbourne, following the death of her parents. But when a sudden bushfire forces her to flee the house, she finds in her driveway a red car, inside of which is the body of a woman she doesn't recognize. In the woman's purse is a scrap of paper with Alison's name and address, and according to her ID, the woman, Simone Arnold, lived in Cairns, a city where Alison spent 10 years. As the investigation into Simone's death proceeds, Alison learns that she was running from an abusive ex-boyfriend, who happens to have been Alison's own ex. Hesitant to tell the police about the connections between her and Simone, Alison finds herself under suspicion as she begins to suspect Simone was followed by their mutual former boyfriend, and that he might still be nearby. Tonally inconsistent and difficult to follow due to flashbacks, this thriller sets up too many subplots to be entirely engaging. Alison is self-destructive and brash, and her attempts to grapple with the aftermath of the fire and her own troubled past become tangled in such a way as to distract from the book's central mystery. What's more, her hesitancy to truly engage with the police is never fully explained, setting up a conflict that never feels entirely logical. Confusing rather than mysterious, this many-pronged thriller falls short.

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November 1, 2023
As wildfires flicker against the walls of her home in the remote Australian countryside, Alison King is resourceful enough to cocoon herself beneath a soaking wet blanket to ensure her survival. When the flames subside so she can escape, Alison races down her driveway only to find an abandoned car blocking the way. Inside lays the body of a woman who could be Alison's doppelganger. The resemblance between Alison and the victim, Simone Arnold, is more than physical, as Alison discovers when she investigates the circumstances that brought Simone to her doorstep and ultimate death. When she learns they shared the same abusive ex-boyfriend, Alison's need to avenge Simone's death and atone for her own victimization bring her into a fatal confrontation with the psychopath who destroyed their lives and reputations. A vivid, emotionally intense, and satisfyingly cerebral psychological thriller in the manner of Tana French or Gillian Flynn, Collins' sharp and probing debut, with an added environmental message, serves up a complex narrative of exposure and retribution.

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