‘Razor sharp, fast moving, and impossible to put down... This is Malcolm Duffy at the top of his game.’ – Brian Conaghan, author of Treacle Town
Two unlikely worlds collide as prize-winning Malcolm Duffy explores the life-changing repercussions of a single action in a game gone wrong.
Sixteen-year-old Rory is a rule-breaker, a risk taker, a maverick. As a kick he comes up with a game called Dead Straight Line. The idea is simple – wherever you happen to be, you’ve got to get home in a dead straight line. Across the back gardens of stranger’s houses, locked parks, trespassing on private property – whatever it takes.
One day, Rory pressures his friend Eliot into playing, resulting in a serious accident. Shunned by friends and facing pressure from his furious parents, Rory becomes even more angry and disruptive. When his school suggests helping out a care home, he’s unimpressed. But paired up with Tanker, an eighty-year-old Geordie military veteran, who fought in the Falklands War, things slowly begin to change.
From seeking thrills to finding friends, choosing the right path in life is never a dead straight line. But there is always a way.
** PRAISE FOR DEAD STRAIGHT LINE **
‘[An] empathetic, powerful, important novel for young men, one that should not be missed.’ – Keith Gray, author of Ostrich Boy
‘I'm a sucker for a funny narrator dealing with bleak stuff! Laughed loads and cried for two whole chapters.’ – Patrice Lawrence
‘The best YA novel I have read in the past 10 years.’– Tom Tolkien, The School Reading List
‘[A] Compelling novel for today's teens about taking risks, peer pressure and paying for our mistakes.’ –Tamsin Winter, author of I Dare You
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Malcolm Duffy is a Geordie born and bred. His first novel, Me Mam. Me Dad. Me. , was inspired by his time at Comic Relief, visiting projects that support women and children who have suffered as a result of domestic abuse. It was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Prize 2019, longlisted for the Branford Boase Award, selected for World B
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