April 2015 Book of the Month Two young people from very different backgrounds star in this crime mystery. Aliya’s family have fled to England from Afghanistan, chased out by the Taliban. Dan lives in London with his parents, reluctantly helping his dad with his plumbing business when he can’t get out of it. The two are brought together when Dan witnesses Aliya’s brother Behrouz being beaten and kidnapped. For reasons of his own, Dan can’t go to the police but when Behrouz is accused of plotting a terrorist attack he decides to help Aliya reveal the truth. Together they untangle a complex web of corruption and deceit, risking their own lives in the process. Sam Hepburn’s plotting is excellent, the tension never lets up and this is a seriously good thriller with a shocking final twist. ~Andrea Reece
A Piece of Passion from Barry Cunningham, Publisher, Chicken House Sam Hepburn writes thrillers seriously – devastating plots and brilliant characters take you places you didn’t mean to go. Stories that are never what you expect, and are always hard to put down. If You Were Me grips with a passion and a purpose. Afterwards the world feels a little bit righter, and a little bit brighter. Fantastic.
From the author of Chasing the Dark comes a thrilling young teen crime mystery, guaranteed to keep you guessing until the very end.
Not long after Aliya's family escapes Afghanistan for Britain, her brother is accused of a bomb attack. Aliya is sure of his innocence, but when plumber's son Dan finds a gun in their bathroom, what's she to think? Dan has his own reasons for staying silent: he's worried the gun might have something to do with his dad. Thrown together by chance, they set out to uncover a tangled and twisted truth.
Sam Hepburn read Modern Languages at Cambridge University before joining the BBC, where she was producer of factual programmes for over 25 years and was the Commissioner for the launch of BBC 4. She lives in London with her husband and three children.
