Snake Ripley has worked at the garage in the dying county of Rockton, Mississippi, for too long, he figures. His ailing father and mentally unstable brother would die if he fled the town, yet that’s what he’s burning to do. If it were not for Truly, the spoiled and outrageous girl he loves, his life of twenty-four years might not be worth living.

Truly Crawford has her own dreams. She longs for excitement and danger, and at 22, she knows what she wants, and she knows that Snake is the only one who can get it for her.

At the heart of Final Heat is the story of two people who share a common rage so intense it ignites everything that comes in their paths. In less than one week, the citizens of Rockton will be forever scarred by a course of swift violence as surprising as it is coldly logical.

Hardcover, Turtle Bay Books/Random House, 1992
French translation as Coup de Chaud, Gallimard, 1994
German translation as Brennende Erde, Goldmann, 1998
Reissued in new edition by Gallimard, 2001