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What Dies in Summer [Paperback]

Tom Wright (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 3 May 2012
Longlisted for the CWA John Creasey Dagger

'I woke up in a cold sweat, knowing for a definite fact that death was a teenage girl and that she had been standing silently by my bed during the night . . .'

Jim Beaudry, or Biscuit as he's known, is a teenage boy trying to stay out of trouble. But trouble has a way of finding him. Especially after his cousin L.A. turns up on his doorstep. When one summer afternoon Biscuit and L.A. discover the body of a teenage girl in the Texas wilderness, an investigation begins that will put both of their lives in grave danger.

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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd (3 May 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0857862782
  • ISBN-13: 978-0857862785
  • Product Dimensions: 15.3 x 2.1 x 23.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 456,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Tom Wright Page
Tom Wright
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Review

'A magnificent novel, not so much about loss of innocence as innocence put through the masher. The story pulsates with a deep dread that would be unbearable if the novel weren't so sweet, funny, sexy and ultimately moving' --NICK CAVE, author of THE DEATH OF BUNNY MUNRO

'Compulsive and provocative . . . A narrative voice that's raw and desperate, a story that grips from start to finish, What Dies In Summer is hugely impressive' --JOHN BOYNE, author of THE BOY WITH THE STRIPED PYJAMAS and THE ABSOLUTIST

'A beautifully written and deeply engaging study of loss and innocence, suffused with chilling dread. A haunting novel, a captivating debut, I loved it' -- S.J WATSON, author of BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP

'An erotic, compelling and deeply assured debut, midway between Ellroy and Faulkner. It evokes so precisely the beauty and sadness of first love and lost innocence' -- Sam Taylor, author of THE REPUBLIC OF TREES

'Builds upon the framework of the conventional modern thriller to fashion something that is much, much more - an exploration of adolescence under the extra pressure of family dysfunction caused by drunkenness and relationship breakdown' -- John Harding, Daily Mail

'A moving exploration of the vulnerability of youth, and of tangled family relationships' -- Laura Wilson, Guardian

'What Dies in Summeris an unsettling novel about the loss of innocence, the betrayal that passes down the generations' -- Kate Saunders, The Times

'What Dies in Summer's charm lies in the way it is sharp and precise about what Biscuit sees and hears, while remaining elusive about everything else... these puzzles contribute significantly to the novel's potency, as they turn you into another Biscuit, restlessly trying to work things out' --John Dugdale, The Sunday Times

About the Author

Tom Wright is a clinical psychotherapist based in Texarkana, USA. What Dies in Summer is his first book.
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Book of the year for me so far... 20 Jun 2012
By T. SMEDLEY VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
This has got to be one of the best books I've read so far this year and it came right out of nowhere. I was quickly drawn in to the heat-hazed world of Jim (or Biscuit if you prefer) and L.A. and their slightly quirky world where everything is slightly out of true. The spell this book weaves around the reader is quite ethereal and nothing that takes place within these pages, no matter how strange or shocking, seems wrong or out of place. It really is that good.

Our two heroes are at that age just on the cusp of adulthood where anything seems possible, yet terrifying at the same time. Writing about people at this age can either be contrived or enchanting and here it is spot on. Despite a few skeletons in their familial closet, some of which are pretty large it has to be said, their lives seem fairly ordinary, or maybe that's just their way of looking at things. Their gran (known as Gram), who they both live with is an enigmatic, wise woman and beautifully drawn by the author.

I won't give any of the story away as this one deserves to gently unfold to each reader as the author intended, but we have aspects of the supernatural - whether you actually believe it's real or not is up to you, dark humour, horror and some genuinely touching scenes, particularly between Jim and his girlfriend Diana. Short, choppy chapters keep the pace moving well as we accompany these two troubled souls on the way to adulthood and the quest they must undertake one hot summer...
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Long Summer Shadows. 30 Jun 2012
By Paul D Brazill
Format:Paperback
A long hot summer casts long dark shadows. And dark shadows hide pitch black secrets.

And there are plenty of shadows cast over Biscuit, a teenage boy who lives with his grandmother. His father is dead and his mother is shacked up with a violent thug. And then his cousin arrives in a state of distress, not saying why she has run away from home.

As the sweltering, hazy summer stretches out to snapping point, we find out more about Biscuit, L.A. and their fragile adolescent world. And the secrets that have been pushed into the darkness are jolted into the glare of light when they discover the body of a murdered teenage girl.

And what dies in the summer is, of course, innocence.

Tom Wight`s What Dies In Summer is a leisurely paced, beautifully, lyrically written and moving coming-of-age novel, cleverly told from Biscuits oblique perspective. Wright uses this warm palate to paint a darkly rich tale of magic-realism with echoes of Laughton's take on Night Of the Hunter and Donna Tartt's The Little Secret.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful writing but precious little plot. 14 Aug 2012
By Mark Webb TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
The story is narrated by Biscuit, a teenage boy from Oak Cliff, Texas, who tells us about the summer he and his cousin LA found the raped and mutilated body of a young girl. It soon it emerges that the girl is not her killer's first victim, nor, it seems, will she be the last if Biscuit's psychic visions are to be believed. The race is on to find the killer before he claims another life.

Biscuit and his cousin LA, live with their grandmother, both families broken by abuse and violence. You do begin to wonder if every family in Oak Cliff has an abusive father; a dark-vein of incest and violence runs through the narrative, binding the disparate themes together.

The language is rich and lush and heavily descriptive; perfectly pitched for this tale set across one long, hot, humid southern summer. The language is the best of it; the plot is decidedly thin, loosely knit around the killings and abuse. The story wanders all over the place and never seems to get to the point. I still don't really understand about the trip to Minnesota, it doesn't help develop the characters and it doesn't advance the story at all, the revelations it supported could as easily have come over a cup of coffee in the kitchen. It had no apparent purpose other than to broaden the scope and pad out the plot and the plot didn't really need padding, what the plot needed was more focus and direction. It's why I couldn't love this book.

The writing is undoubtedly gorgeous but it needs more to hang on. A good sub plot would have done the trick and there was a stab at one, in Biscuit's psychic flashes and the sudden appearance of the shaman woman, but neither were developed or went anywhere. The thing as a whole felt a little like summer's day at the pool; we jump right in at the deep end with Biscuit and his life - no real beginning as such. We swim and paddle and mess around for two hundred and eighty-odd pages, then jump right out again, having been nowhere and done little, but had a pleasant enough time in between.

In short, What Dies in Summer is full of lovely moments and promise, but as a novel, it never quite delivered.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Escapism at its best
I really enjoyed reading this book. I think it is up there within the top 10 of my ultimate escapism books.
The way everything is represented in this book is brilliant. Read more
Published 8 days ago by C. Hamer
4.0 out of 5 stars What Dies in Summer
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Being a debut novel, I was a little sceptical - but I had no need to worry. It's a great book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by A. Lucas
4.0 out of 5 stars Above-average crime fiction debut
The approving Nick Cave quote on the jacket forced my hand with this and I'm glad it did: this Texas-set first novel by Tom Wright is a beautifulyl written coming-of-age drama... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Andrew Sutherland
5.0 out of 5 stars A journey worth taking
Beautifully written, this book will grip you from beginning to end. It is one of those books that gives you a jolt in your gut when you read it, you get to certain parts and you... Read more
Published 6 months ago by ralphabet
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best "first" books I have read
This must be the very best book I have read out of the many "Amazon Vine" books I have seen.

It is extremely well written - yes it is a crime story but at times the... Read more
Published 9 months ago by J. Colin Moss
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Knowing absolutely nothing about this book before it appeared on the Vine Newsletter all I had to go on was the blurb and the quotes from well known authors. Read more
Published 11 months ago by I Readalot
3.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable but flawed debut
This book is a bit of a slow-burner and there are certain conditions under which you need to read it: ie, have plenty of time to devote to long reading sessions so that the... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Helen
3.0 out of 5 stars A slow start
Biscuit lives with his Gram and his cousin L.A. In Oak Cliff, Texas. He supposedly has inherited the Sight and gets flashes of visions or disturbing dreams. The summer he and L.A. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Curiosity Killed The Bookworm
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