Radiant Heat

Sarah-Jane Collins

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....

Alison is alive. She rode out the fire on the damp tiles of her bathroom, her entire body swaddled in a wet woolen blanket. The flames crackled around her, the bitter char of eucalyptus settling in the back of her throat. The wildfire devastated the Victoria countryside she calls home, and when Alison creeps out of her hiding place, she spots a soot-covered cherry red car in her driveway, and in it, a woman. She finds the woman’s bag. An Simone Arnold. A piece of Alison’s full name and address. But why?

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