Radiant Heat

By: Sarah-Jane Collins

Narrated by: Tamsin Carroll

Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

When a catastrophic wildfire suddenly rips through a woman’s hometown, she thinks she is lucky to have survived . . . until she finds a dead woman in her driveway, clutching a piece of paper with her name on it. . . .

The blaze came out of nowhere one summer afternoon, a wall of fire fed by blustering wind. Yet, somehow, Alison is alive. She rode out the fire on the damp tiles of her bathroom, her entire body swaddled in a wet woolen blanket. As flames crackled around her, the bitter char of eucalyptus settled in the back of her throat, each breath more desperate than the last.

The wildfire that devastated the Victoria countryside Alison calls home sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to obliterate the carefully constructed life she is living. When Alison emerges from her sheltering place, she spots a soot-covered cherry red car in her driveway, and in it, a dead woman. Alison has never met Simone Arnold in her life . . . or so she thinks. So what is she doing here?

As Alison searches for answers across Australia’s scorched bushlands, she soon learns that the fire isn’t the only threat she’s facing. . . .

©2024 Sarah-Jane Collins (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A sense of blooming dread, and the deft, finely painted lines of an artist at work. This close and claustrophobic mystery captures something important about disaster–the way it can crest a hill and we find ourselves woefully unprepared. A finely observed and utterly compulsive read.”—Hayley Scrivenor, bestselling author of Dirt Creek

"Gripping from the first page, this tale of destruction, survival, and mysteries uncovered in the ashes kept me up late into the night."—Kate Alice Marshall, author of What Lies in the Woods

“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.”—Library Journal (starred review)

Great narrator.

A little cheesy and predictable at times. Anticlimactic and unsatisfying ending but narrator was very good.

A slow burn full miss opportunities

In all, you spend your time hearing about a woman who refuses to make any smart choices and continues down the path of opening doors to hurt the people who are trying to help her. There is no resolution to her selfish ways, except somehow her life goes on, despite what seems to be a character who purposely takes the worst possible decision in all scenarios
Also, the main character is a painter, but is very rarely described in viewing things through an artist perspective This book is a credit I wish I could get back.

Extremely aggravating main character

I couldn’t stand the main character. She made bad decisions, was self-defeating and undermining, and made unfathomably poor choices. I skipped through whole sections of chapters in order not to be a victim of this writers lame and uncredible efforts at suspense. I listened to most of it all the way to the end just to see if she could pull it off. Somehow, she didn’t. my advice is not to waste your time.