Dead Straight Line

<p>‘<b><i>Razor sharp, fast moving, and impossible to put down... This is Malcolm Duffy at the top of his game.</i></b>’ – Brian Conaghan, author of <i>Treacle Town</i><br><b><br>Two unlikely worlds collide as prize-winning Malcolm Duffy explores the life-changing repercussions of a single action in a game gone wrong.</b><br><br>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.<br><br>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. <br><br>From seeking thrills to finding friends, choosing the right path in life is never a dead straight line. But there is always a way.<br><br><b>** PRAISE FOR <i>DEAD STRAIGHT LINE **</i></b><br><br>‘<i>[An] empathetic, powerful, important novel for young men, one that should not be missed.</i>’ – Keith Gray, author of <i>Ostrich Boy</i><br><br>‘<i>I''m a sucker for a funny narrator dealing with bleak stuff! Laughed loads and cried for two whole chapters.</i>’ – Patrice Lawrence <br><br>‘<i>The best YA novel I have read in the past 10 years.</i>’– Tom Tolkien, <i>The School Reading List</i><br><br>‘<i>[A] Compelling novel for today''s teens about taking risks, peer pressure and paying for our mistakes.</i>’ –Tamsin Winter, author of <i>I Dare You</i></p>