Paula Hawkins, best known for Girl On The Train and Into The Water, now gives us A Slow Fire Burning. Thanks to Penguin Group Riverhead and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for this honest review of a book I was REALLY looking forward to as an escape from the news of the day…
The overall atmosphere in this one is dark and dreary, and I didn’t find any of the characters particularly likeable. After a young man is found by his busybody neighbor stabbed to death on his houseboat, she and two other women are the possible suspects in this slowly unraveling mystery.
Laura is a young woman with a tragic past, and Irene is older, with a kind heart…maybe. Hawkins unspools the secrets of each of the women and how they are connected to the victim, and provides lots of misdirection to keep the reader guessing. I’m notoriously bad at figuring out mysteries, and this one was no exception. Perhaps it was the combination of unlikeable people and their unreliability as narrators, but this one didn’t really do it for me. Or — more likely — my expectations were too high. But it DID succeed in taking me away from the news for a day, for which I am grateful.Three stars, and I’ll still read her next one!