The Dead of Summer

Product Description

**DEBUT FICTION**

“Admit how your pulse quickens when you see those headlines: murder spree of schoolgirl loner; boy, 13, rapes classmate; child, 10, stabs pensioner.” So says narrator Anita Naidu, and she should know. At thirteen, Anita was the sole witness to London’s notorious cave murders of 1986, which left three children dead. Told seven years later to the police psychologist who interviewed her at the time of the killings, Anita’s story reveals the savagery of the schoolyard one chilling detail at a time until the truth of what actually happened reveals itself with startling ferocity. Set against the bustling, tourist-packed streets of historic Greenwich, this novel examines sinister events that happen, quite literally, right below the surface.

An audacious debut, The Dead of Summer is written in spare, evocative prose with remarkable psychological acuity and the daring to examine the dark, intensely fragile point between childhood and adolescence, and the morbid impulses of those mutable years.

From Publishers Weekly

From the U.K. comes this promising debut novel narrated by the sole witness and survivor of a set of murders that left three children dead in an abandoned Greenwich, England, mine in 1986. Seven years later, Anita Naidu, now nearly 20, lives in quiet isolation in Bristol. She tells her tale largely in retrospect, with her opening bluster soon giving way to the vulnerability of her 13-year-old self. Having recently lost her mother and moved with her family to a council house in South London back then, Anita’s only friends are the overweight and learning-disabled Denis and her volatile neighbor Kyle. The young Anita identifies with Kyle’s social invisibility and, more disturbingly, his violence. The friends spend their adolescent summer wandering around Greenwich, running from bullies and seeking hidden caves. As the novel progresses toward its horrific surprise conclusion, Anita gradually reveals more and more disturbing information both about Kyle—and his mysteriously disappeared little sister—and about herself. Anita’s story is intriguing and her portrait of the desperate Kyle touching, but the way Anita’s damaged psychology plays out seems more a result of narrative necessity than of a realized character. Still, readers will react to the bold material and stark storytelling.
(Jan.)
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Review

“Don”t be fooled by the diminutive size of Camilla Way”s debut novel,
The Dead of Summer. The complexity and pathos packed into this little novel are equal to a book twice its size … Camilla Way”s skill at developing realistic, sympathetic characters and a compelling story is impressive. I”m looking forward to reading more from this promising British journalist.”

(
The Kansas City Star)

From the Inside Flap

“Admit how your pulse quickens when you see those headlines: murder spree of schoolgirl loner; boy, 13, rapes classmate; child, 10, stabs pensioner.” So says narrator Anita Naidu, and she should know. At thirteen, Anita was the sole witness to London’s notorious cave murders of 1986, which left three children dead. Told seven years later to the police psychologist who interviewed her at the time of the killings, Anita’s story reveals the savagery of the schoolyard one chilling detail at a time until the truth of what actually happened reveals itself with startling ferocity. Set against the bustling, tourist-packed streets of historic Greenwich, this novel examines sinister events that happen, quite literally, right below the surface.

An audacious debut, The Dead of Summer is written in spare, evocative prose with remarkable psychological acuity and the daring to examine the dark, intensely fragile point between childhood and adolescence, and the morbid impulses of those mutable years.

From the Back Cover

Praise for
The Dead of Summer

“The Dead of