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Description

'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

Accessibility Information

Additional accessibility information

  • EPUB 3.0
  • Conforms with the requirements of EPUB Accessibility Spec v1.1
  • WCAG level AA
  • WCAG v2.2 compliant
  • accessibility@bloomsbury.com

Hazards

The publication contains no hazards

Support for non-visual reading

  • No accessibility features offered by the reading system, device or reading software are disabled or otherwise unusable with the product
  • Has alternative text descriptions for images

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Appearance of the text and page layout can be modified according to the capabilities of the reading system (font family and size, spaces, as well as color of background and text)

Navigation

  • Page list to go to pages from the print source version
  • Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation
  • All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order
  • Content is enhanced with ARIA roles to optimize organization and facilitate navigation
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Rich content

Language tagging provided

Product details

Published Apr 09 2026
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Pages 320
ISBN 9781035919253
Imprint Zephyr
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Malcolm Duffy

Geordie Malcolm Duffy now lives in Surrey. His deb…

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