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Dead Straight Line
- Author
- Malcolm Duffy
- Narrator
- George Bray
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 9 April 2026
- Run Time
- 6 hours 1 minute
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
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.
Critics Review
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[A] refreshing, emotionally intelligent story... powerful and punchy.
Book of the Week, Times
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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
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'An] empathetic, powerful, important novel for young men, one that should not be missed.
Keith Gray, author of Ostrich Boy
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I'm a sucker for a funny narrator dealing with bleak stuff! Laughed loads and cried for two whole chapters.
Patrice Lawrence
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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The best YA novel I have read in the past 10 years.
Tom Tolkien, The School Reading List
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[A] Compelling novel for today's teens about taking risks, peer pressure and paying for our mistakes.
Tamsin Winter
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Malcolm Duffy
- Narrator
- George Bray
- Duration
- 6 hours 1 minute
- Release Date
- 9 April 2026
- ISBN
- 9781035919246
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Children’s / Teenage fiction: General, modern and contemporary fiction
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents Dead Straight Line by Malcolm Duffy, read by George Bray.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.
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