A Slow Fire Burning

Product Information

Paula's second thriller, Into the Water , and her latest book, A Slow Fire Burning , were also instant Number 1 bestsellers.

A nosy neighbor, a one-night stand, and a resentful family member, all who are juggling their own secrets and hidden agendas. I can’t say it was an explosive moment for me and that’s perhaps because there are many minor twists here and this one sort of melded in with the crowd. The first half of the book would have easily been rated a 2 or 3 stars, just average if not a bit overly complex. The killer, for me at least, didn’t come as a huge surprise, but it’s the why that’ll leave readers squirming.Twenty-three-year-old Daniel Sutherland is found stabbed to death on the shabby houseboat where he lived, mere weeks after his alcoholic mother Angela died alone, falling down the stairs. It is slow and it is a little compelling to read because when you start one of the narrators’ chapter, you ask yourself who was this character and you get to turn back for reading his/ her story one more time to refresh your memory! But the reason I frame it in this way is that it came and went before I’d realised that that's what it was. This was this month’s book club pick, and I loved The Girl on the Train by the same author, which I read some time ago a couple of times, which is quite unusual for me, so I was really excited to get my hands on a copy, so much so that I bought myself a hardcover copy thinking I would love it.

I may be biased as I was expecting a book as extraordinary as ‘The Girl on the Train’ so therefore I left feeling mildly underwhelmed and wanting a hair more. I found the last half of the book to be real good as everything unfolded and came together in some shocking revelations. After getting the full picture and understanding the characters’ back stories and connections, your reading journey gets less bumpy but it’s still struggling and requiring your extra efforts. This being a Hawkins novel, the plot twists are sprinkled liberally to keep listeners on their toes, though the story is sustained by the humanity of these expertly narrated characters whose secrets are slowly brought to the surface. The twists weren’t as action-packed as I was hoping they would be, but it still made for an enticing story.

Fortunately for Daniel, there is a noisy neighbor Miriam who takes detailed records of all of the comings and goings.

One woman in her 20s suffered a brutal hit-and-run as a child that resulted in brain damage causing behavioural issues. A Slow Fire Burning has a large cast, which I found easy to keep track of, with interlocking stories that they aren’t aware of themselves. The towpath was still, the roads up above quiet too, no sounds save for the throb of a generator, the squabble of moorhens ghosting gently past. A Slow Fire Burning twists and turns like a great thriller should, but it's also deep, intelligent and intensely human.Regardless, we only recommend products or services we use personally and believe will add value to our readers. The characters – all of them – are a pretty dislikeable bunch and I didn’t find myself becoming sympathetic to the cause of any of them.