It was a book that exposed the way the sympathies of the reader might be manipulated, laying bare how quickly we jump to conclusions about guilt and innocence, power and responsibility. Like that earlier novel, A Slow Fire Burning incorporates multiple points of view, potentially unreliable narrators, and the perspectives of marginalized characters. Hawkins uses a little humor when describing the writing style that made Theo’s book such a success, mirroring her own style, one so successfully used in The Girl on the Train. 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. In an interview with NPR, Hawkins admits that while she was walking near her London home, which is near an area of moored houseboats, she often contemplated where would be a perfect spot to hide or dispose of a body.

Say what you will about Hannibal Lecter, but up until the dinner hour, he’d be an entertaining companion, even someone you might consider a “friend. The novel is Hawkins’s third major work and builds on themes that she established in her first psychological thriller novel, the extremely successful The Girl on the Train (2015).In retrospect it did explained things, it was the moment all should have become clear in my mind (as I’m sure it will in the minds of more switched-on readers). the title, however, does not describe the book—this fire burns fast—a highly engaging page-turner that whisks the reader to and fro—edging close to the truth before shifting the focus away each time in a delicious flurry of NOT YET, MY LOVELIES!

To say I was not confused is an understatement, but I remember having that same feeling with her first one, but yet it reels you in at a tantalizing rate of emotions that you will revel in this when your finished.Pike makes deft work of these unreliable narrators who span several generations, imbuing their voices with a defensiveness and vulnerability born from past disappointments and trauma. 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. It’s deliciously twisty and just when you think everything has been resolved, there’s one more twist waiting.

He’s approached to do one last assignment, one that will bring him a huge payout and dispatch an evil man. Did Daniel really lure Ben to his death or was that aspect of his graphic novel just a manifestation of his guilt? Tie-in all of these characters in a spellbinding, psychotic thriller and pick one out of the bunch narrowing it down into a guilty and not guilty pile, you will undoubtedly need to tear it down and restart with many surprising second guesses. With a number of unlikeable characters that are complicated and deemed as troubling, it was hard to cheer for any of them.

One highlight is that the audio version I listened to was impeccably narrated by the brilliant actress Rosumund Pike.

He’s antisocial and fantasized over her but nothing indicates that they were involved other than her husband mentioning that as a motive to take the heat for his wife killing Daniel. Moving between the perspectives of Straitley and Buckfast – “in his old black gown and his chalk-smudged suit, he looks like the last piece of dead skin left on a quickly healing wound” – she thinks of her new sparring partner.When a young man is found gruesomely murdered in a London houseboat, it triggers questions about three women who knew him.