Previously published as Lost Boys, this quartet of over-layering stories introduces four strangers. The only thing they have in common is their dull English town and the unusual heatwave that broils its lack-lustre streets and wilting parks. They and their separate stories are drawn violently together when a young boy pulls them into the maelstrom of his fate.
Each is at a crossing place. Matt must leap the gulf between adolescence and adulthood. Megan needs to find her way out of troubled waters. A family crisis propels Jade to set her foot on a tenuous path to faith. Mrs Fairlie knows the bridge she faces but refuses to cross without knowing the fate of her son.
A pivotal events connects their narratives and their lives to demonstrate how fates intertwine and how the consequences of our choices can affect people we don't even know.