Sunburn

Waterstones Thriller of the Month for August 2018

Longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger 2018

'Sunburn is [Lippman's] dark, gleaming noir gem. Read it.' - Gillian Flynn

Meet Polly, which may or may not be her real name, this year's most dangerous leading lady...

Adam and Polly meet by chance in a local bar in a small town in Delaware. Polly is heading west. Adam says he's also passing through. Yet she stays and so does he - drawn to this mysterious redhead who unnerves and excites him.

Over the course of one hot summer, they abandon themselves to a steamy affair. But each holds back something from the other - dangerous, even lethal, secrets…

The perfect summer thriller, Sunburn combines the classic American noir flavour of James M. Cain with Anne Tyler’s shrewd observation about everyday America. Lippman’s writing is passionate and laced with bubbling menace; as the Financial Times warns, readers should prepare themselves to be ‘mesmerised by her combustible cocktail of the erotic and the malign’. The result is an intensely compelling novel that demands to be devoured in one sitting.