A Slow Fire Burning

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Afterward, her forearm wrapped ineffectually in reams of toilet paper, the rest of her wrapped in a threadbare towel, sitting on the ugly gray pleather sofa in her living room, Laura rang her mother. She realized he was trying to figure her out, that he wasn't taking her at her word, that he didn't necessarily believe what she was telling him. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. From the first sentence to the last, this explosive, startling novel grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go.

We also are given glimpses into small segments of a best selling mystery written by one of the characters. While the structure of the novel is a murder mystery, the killer’s identity is almost the least interesting aspect of the book. None of them are likeable, and none of them see any of the other characters in a good light, either.Hawkins builds and layers to a point where it’s perfectly feasible that any one of them could have killed in cold blood. Eyewitness by another houseboat resident, Miriam leads to a young girl Laura, who seemingly had a very disturbing past and childhood resulting in her unpredictable behavior. A Slow Fire Burning is an atmospheric, suspenseful, psychotic thriller that will have you gripping the edge of your seat.

The combination of intriguing mystery and fleshed out and equally intriguing characters was superbly executed and really elevated this rating for me. Her books have all the pleasing twists of the noir genre while at the same time having something to say that feels real and complex and true - her women characters feel like someone you actually know.

Harks back to peak-period Barbara Vine with its beautifully drawn characters and its offbeat London setting . I disagree; Hawkins tells her tale so thoroughly that the pieces are obvious and careful readers will know who did it and why.

Other readers have said they thought the twist at the end was great, but it fell completely flat for me. I just put it down to the mental instability of the murderer and all the supporting cast members in this long, drawn out drama. A Slow Fire Burning absolutely held me with its compelling, multi-generational cast of women and the brilliantly evoked pathos of damaged lives. The third thriller from British novelist Paula Hawkins — whose debut book “The Girl on the Train” (2015) sold millions and made millions more in theaters with Emily Blunt in the starring role — “A Slow Fire Burning” continues Hawkins’ penchant for telling stories from multiple points of view.Each person the spotlight falls on seems to be hiding something and as additional information is progressively fed in I found that my perception of what was going on in the background was subtly (or sometime not so subtly) challenged. A child tragedy, a terrifying abduction and an accusation of plagiarism all play their part in solving the murder investigation. The toilet paper around her forearm bloomed scarlet, her limb throbbing gently as the blood pulsed out of her. With characters and a setting similar to HBO’s streaming sensation Mare of Easttown, this story seems tailor-made for the streaming treatment.

I found the last half of the book to be real good as everything unfolded and came together in some shocking revelations.

bestseller, spending twenty weeks in the Sunday Times hardback fiction Top 10 bestseller list, and six weeks at No. Bending down when no such response came, her attempt to peer into the cabin thwarted by the net curtain coupled with what looked like a decade's worth of city and river grime. The police are quite bamboozled and have to finally rely on an unexpected player to catch the killer. There are unreliable and unlikeable characters, a book within a book and plenty of twists and turns. Her first thriller, The Girl on the Train, has been a global phenomenon, selling 23 million copies worldwide.