Dead Straight Line

By: Malcolm Duffy

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Paperback | 9 April 2026

At a Glance

Format
Paperback

Age
12+

Dimensions(cm)
20.0 x 13.1 x 2.4

Paperback

$26.75

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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

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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