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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
When I started reading The Burning, I wasn’t sure about it. The pace was somewhat slow and the characterizations were careful and gradual, especially in the case of the protagonist, Maeve Kerrigan. About halfway through the book, however, the character came to life, and the twists and turns of the plot led to a thoroughly interesting “whodunnit and why” denouement. In all, a solid read. I’ll keep an eye out for more of Jane Casey’s work in the future!
Enjoyable but ultimately forgettable. Too slow a pace for me but still an enjoyable mystery. Was hoping for it to be a bit more 'thrilling' though.
Reasonable whodunnit with an ending that I hope wasn't supposed to be a surprise. A bit too long in the end, but I liked Maeve.
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
The Burning (Maeve Kerrigan, Book 2)
by Jane Casey
★★★★☆
354 Pages
1st person, multi-character POV, plus one POV in 3rd person.
Themes: murder, crime, violence, friendship, romance, relationships
TRIGGERS: drug use, domestic violence, rape, suicide, murder, violence
Genre: Crime, Contemporary, Murder Mystery
~
The Burning is the first novel in the Maeve Kerrigan series, and I have to say, it's a winner! The story is told in multi-POV, but for a reason, and follows two cases the police suspect, and hope, are by the same serial killer: the Burning Man. If not, the final case looks like a copycat.
The plot is smart, sophisticated, well researched, with a human element that means you can related to and root for the MC, Maeve Kerrigan. A cop who has been brought onto the Burning Man case, but has little experience in murder cases. Through her, we find out how the cases are solved, getting explanations of the forensics processes and such, in a way that isn't condescending, but is both intelligent and understandable.
There are 4 specific POV's. The first being of Kate, who suspects she's about to be the fifth victim of the Burning man; the second being Maeve, the investigating detective; the third is Louise, the best friend of the most recent victim, Rebecca; and a brief POV for Rob, another detective investigating the Burning Man, on Maeve's team.
Kate's POV is in 3rd person, but the following POV's are all given in 1st person.
Personally, I think this would make a great TV series. You could easily have one chapter as an episode, and one book as a series. There's always something interesting going on, the cast are relatable and interesting, the case is complex but easy to follow without being predictable.
As an avid true crime and crime fiction buff, I loved that I could follow the clues with Maeve, and could start to form my own theories. The inclusion of a secondary POV was surprising, but also part of how clever the plotting and pacing was. It allowed us to wonder if the second POV – of Louise, the best friend of the most recent victim, Rebecca – was to show us what Rebecca's life was really like, or if Louise might be another suspect and/or victim of the serial killer.
Amongst the crime, there were also snippets of Maeve's personal life. It was great to see her life portrayed so realistically – not wanting to pee while on the phone to a colleague, in case they could hear; worrying self-consciously about her hair in front of well-put-together witnesses; and even how her relationship took a nose-dive because of her work. The struggle of a woman in a job full of men, a total boys club, was stark but accurate.
Similarly, seeing Maeve's new romance build was honest, and gradual. Starting with a friendship, then building into an unexpected romance. Yet, the story is still 85% criminal investigating, allowing the last 15% to show Maeve's humanity.
In terms of characters, I really liked Maeve. As I said, she was completely relatable, personable, and did her best to manage in a man's world. She ignored, when she could, the misogyny and the snide jokes, even though she was often teased for being female and/or Irish. I wish she had more confidence in herself, but understand that she's a product of her environment and 2009 was a totally different era to what policing, and women at work, are now.
I hated Ian, almost from the get-go, but I think I was supposed to realise how unfit he was, as a match, for Maeve. I utterly loved Rob, who was snarky, clever, but also a little jaded by his job. Personally, I found Louise irritating and confusing, which I think was deliberate. She had a creepy infatuation with Rebecca that always made me question her motives and place in the story.
As a student of Forensic Science, I was thrilled to see it accurately portrayed. Not only the process, but the timing, and the fact that not every crime has forensic traces that give answers. That even the best in the business can't get answers immediately. Investigations take time, you don't always get anything useful from witnesses, and not every witness will tell the truth or the whole truth. I also liked how the story began with the serial killer already 4 victims into his spree, and it took a while for Maeve and Rob to run through the previous victims cases. It made sense that they would, eventually, have to run through them all, but I liked how it was handled, and that it felt natural to the investigation, not just added to give the reader more information.
So...after all that, why didn't I give it 5*? Well, there were NO trigger warnings, and there are A LOT of triggers within the book, including but not limited to:
* drug use
* on-page and historical domestic violence
* on-page violent
* death by drowning
* violent murder
* attempted suicide
* on-page rape, as well as discussions of historical rape
These could have been REALLY triggering to someone, and there was no warning. The mentions of historical rape and drug use were bad enough, but there was an actual on-page rape told in the victim's POV, and it was very jarring to stumble across, with little warning. Even the mentions of domestic violence – both physical, emotional manipulation, and gaslighting – could be triggering to some.
In terms of execution, I'm not normally a fan of 1st person, but it worked well here. However, I found it awkward and strange to be given Louise's POV, because of how closely linked she was to the murder and victim. And potentially unnecessary to include Kate's POV, when we found out all we needed to know about her from the investigation. However, in the end, Maeve's POV was by far the best part, and that helped overshadow my minor frustration with the other POV's.
The book ended with an unexpected confession, in an unexpected form, and multiple news articles that wrap up all the cases without the need for focusing on one person's POV. It meant we got a full account of what happened to each of our POV characters – Kate, Maeve, Louise and Rob – as well as the individual cases that were mentioned throughout.
~
OVERALL
I thought the storyline was clever, sophisticated and honest. It didn't sugar-coat the police, or their investigation, and it didn't gloss over the brutal facts of the case. Both the violence, the brutally honest explorations of ordinary lives, the messy lives people live, and how they try to cope with personal trauma, were all realistic, natural and engaging.
As an MC, and a detective, in the first novel of a series, Maeve was everything I could have hoped for. Smart, with her everyday problems, dedicated to her work, and fully committed to putting her career first, even if that means sacrificing her relationship and time for herself. Her personal life was given a decent exploration without taking away from the case, or making it seem illogical. Her time was well spent, with equal weight given to the personal, and professional, aspects.
While I had some issues – the triggers, and the multi-POV – I didn't notice many other issues with the text. There were very few grammar or plot issues, though the final chapter did have a few quotation mark problems, and places where capital letters are small.
The whole thing was really well done, and I enjoyed the overall effect. I'll definitely be reading more in the series, and look forward to seeing Maeve's relationship, and professional life, flourish.
~
Favourite Quote
“I turned to glare at Rob. ‘Gobshite? Was that the best you could do?’
He looked wounded. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The mugs, Rob. Don’t play the innocent with me. You wrote “gobshite” in mugs in my kitchen.’
‘It’s Ian’s kitchen really, isn’t it? I hope he didn’t think I meant that he’s a gobshite.’
‘What else was he supposed to think?’
Rob shrugged. ‘That I wanted to write the longest swearword I could think of that didn’t use any letters twice. It was either that or knobhead.’
‘You twat …’
‘Four letters and too many Ts. Try again.’
‘I’d rather not.’ I bit my lip, trying to keep a straight face and failing.”
“She had been whatever people wanted her to be, right up to the moment when what they wanted her to be was dead.”
by Jane Casey
★★★★☆
354 Pages
1st person, multi-character POV, plus one POV in 3rd person.
Themes: murder, crime, violence, friendship, romance, relationships
TRIGGERS: drug use, domestic violence, rape, suicide, murder, violence
Genre: Crime, Contemporary, Murder Mystery
~
The Burning is the first novel in the Maeve Kerrigan series, and I have to say, it's a winner! The story is told in multi-POV, but for a reason, and follows two cases the police suspect, and hope, are by the same serial killer: the Burning Man. If not, the final case looks like a copycat.
The plot is smart, sophisticated, well researched, with a human element that means you can related to and root for the MC, Maeve Kerrigan. A cop who has been brought onto the Burning Man case, but has little experience in murder cases. Through her, we find out how the cases are solved, getting explanations of the forensics processes and such, in a way that isn't condescending, but is both intelligent and understandable.
There are 4 specific POV's. The first being of Kate, who suspects she's about to be the fifth victim of the Burning man; the second being Maeve, the investigating detective; the third is Louise, the best friend of the most recent victim, Rebecca; and a brief POV for Rob, another detective investigating the Burning Man, on Maeve's team.
Kate's POV is in 3rd person, but the following POV's are all given in 1st person.
Personally, I think this would make a great TV series. You could easily have one chapter as an episode, and one book as a series. There's always something interesting going on, the cast are relatable and interesting, the case is complex but easy to follow without being predictable.
As an avid true crime and crime fiction buff, I loved that I could follow the clues with Maeve, and could start to form my own theories. The inclusion of a secondary POV was surprising, but also part of how clever the plotting and pacing was. It allowed us to wonder if the second POV – of Louise, the best friend of the most recent victim, Rebecca – was to show us what Rebecca's life was really like, or if Louise might be another suspect and/or victim of the serial killer.
Amongst the crime, there were also snippets of Maeve's personal life. It was great to see her life portrayed so realistically – not wanting to pee while on the phone to a colleague, in case they could hear; worrying self-consciously about her hair in front of well-put-together witnesses; and even how her relationship took a nose-dive because of her work. The struggle of a woman in a job full of men, a total boys club, was stark but accurate.
Similarly, seeing Maeve's new romance build was honest, and gradual. Starting with a friendship, then building into an unexpected romance. Yet, the story is still 85% criminal investigating, allowing the last 15% to show Maeve's humanity.
In terms of characters, I really liked Maeve. As I said, she was completely relatable, personable, and did her best to manage in a man's world. She ignored, when she could, the misogyny and the snide jokes, even though she was often teased for being female and/or Irish. I wish she had more confidence in herself, but understand that she's a product of her environment and 2009 was a totally different era to what policing, and women at work, are now.
I hated Ian, almost from the get-go, but I think I was supposed to realise how unfit he was, as a match, for Maeve. I utterly loved Rob, who was snarky, clever, but also a little jaded by his job. Personally, I found Louise irritating and confusing, which I think was deliberate. She had a creepy infatuation with Rebecca that always made me question her motives and place in the story.
As a student of Forensic Science, I was thrilled to see it accurately portrayed. Not only the process, but the timing, and the fact that not every crime has forensic traces that give answers. That even the best in the business can't get answers immediately. Investigations take time, you don't always get anything useful from witnesses, and not every witness will tell the truth or the whole truth. I also liked how the story began with the serial killer already 4 victims into his spree, and it took a while for Maeve and Rob to run through the previous victims cases. It made sense that they would, eventually, have to run through them all, but I liked how it was handled, and that it felt natural to the investigation, not just added to give the reader more information.
So...after all that, why didn't I give it 5*? Well, there were NO trigger warnings, and there are A LOT of triggers within the book, including but not limited to:
* drug use
* on-page and historical domestic violence
* on-page violent
* death by drowning
* violent murder
* attempted suicide
* on-page rape, as well as discussions of historical rape
These could have been REALLY triggering to someone, and there was no warning. The mentions of historical rape and drug use were bad enough, but there was an actual on-page rape told in the victim's POV, and it was very jarring to stumble across, with little warning. Even the mentions of domestic violence – both physical, emotional manipulation, and gaslighting – could be triggering to some.
In terms of execution, I'm not normally a fan of 1st person, but it worked well here. However, I found it awkward and strange to be given Louise's POV, because of how closely linked she was to the murder and victim. And potentially unnecessary to include Kate's POV, when we found out all we needed to know about her from the investigation. However, in the end, Maeve's POV was by far the best part, and that helped overshadow my minor frustration with the other POV's.
The book ended with an unexpected confession, in an unexpected form, and multiple news articles that wrap up all the cases without the need for focusing on one person's POV. It meant we got a full account of what happened to each of our POV characters – Kate, Maeve, Louise and Rob – as well as the individual cases that were mentioned throughout.
~
OVERALL
I thought the storyline was clever, sophisticated and honest. It didn't sugar-coat the police, or their investigation, and it didn't gloss over the brutal facts of the case. Both the violence, the brutally honest explorations of ordinary lives, the messy lives people live, and how they try to cope with personal trauma, were all realistic, natural and engaging.
As an MC, and a detective, in the first novel of a series, Maeve was everything I could have hoped for. Smart, with her everyday problems, dedicated to her work, and fully committed to putting her career first, even if that means sacrificing her relationship and time for herself. Her personal life was given a decent exploration without taking away from the case, or making it seem illogical. Her time was well spent, with equal weight given to the personal, and professional, aspects.
While I had some issues – the triggers, and the multi-POV – I didn't notice many other issues with the text. There were very few grammar or plot issues, though the final chapter did have a few quotation mark problems, and places where capital letters are small.
The whole thing was really well done, and I enjoyed the overall effect. I'll definitely be reading more in the series, and look forward to seeing Maeve's relationship, and professional life, flourish.
~
Favourite Quote
“I turned to glare at Rob. ‘Gobshite? Was that the best you could do?’
He looked wounded. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The mugs, Rob. Don’t play the innocent with me. You wrote “gobshite” in mugs in my kitchen.’
‘It’s Ian’s kitchen really, isn’t it? I hope he didn’t think I meant that he’s a gobshite.’
‘What else was he supposed to think?’
Rob shrugged. ‘That I wanted to write the longest swearword I could think of that didn’t use any letters twice. It was either that or knobhead.’
‘You twat …’
‘Four letters and too many Ts. Try again.’
‘I’d rather not.’ I bit my lip, trying to keep a straight face and failing.”
“She had been whatever people wanted her to be, right up to the moment when what they wanted her to be was dead.”
http://mariesbookgarden.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-burning.html
I read Jane Casey's first novel, The Missing, and was not as nearly taken with it as her second, The Burning, which felt similar to BBC's "Prime Suspect" (with Helen Mirren), but with a young Irish detective named Maeve.
One reason why I didn't like her first novel was that I didn't find her main character, Sarah Finch, to be very likable. She ended up being a teacher after she hated school, and she didn't seem to get any enjoyment out of her job. I cannot relate to this, but my husband tells me that he thinks it sounds British...he thinks that more people in the UK go into teaching without really being called to do so. That might be true.
At any rate, I prefer Maeve. She has to put up with her English colleagues' misogyny and crap about her Irish ancestry, but she is a strong and complex character. She's working on a case to catch a London serial killer who likes to beat his female victims to a pulp and then set their bodies ablaze. It's more of a police procedural (hence the Prime Suspect comparison) than a mystery book, but I liked it.
The other thing I appreciated about this book was the publisher didn't dumb it down for Americans...as in, they didn't change the British terms and language (like they did in Harry Potter, for example). Most Americans will not know what a bacon buttie is...but that's okay! They can look it up if they want to know.
I will keep reading Casey's books (she has three more Maeve Kerrigan books published with another one on the way), and I'm so glad she redeemed herself after the first one.
I read Jane Casey's first novel, The Missing, and was not as nearly taken with it as her second, The Burning, which felt similar to BBC's "Prime Suspect" (with Helen Mirren), but with a young Irish detective named Maeve.
One reason why I didn't like her first novel was that I didn't find her main character, Sarah Finch, to be very likable. She ended up being a teacher after she hated school, and she didn't seem to get any enjoyment out of her job. I cannot relate to this, but my husband tells me that he thinks it sounds British...he thinks that more people in the UK go into teaching without really being called to do so. That might be true.
At any rate, I prefer Maeve. She has to put up with her English colleagues' misogyny and crap about her Irish ancestry, but she is a strong and complex character. She's working on a case to catch a London serial killer who likes to beat his female victims to a pulp and then set their bodies ablaze. It's more of a police procedural (hence the Prime Suspect comparison) than a mystery book, but I liked it.
The other thing I appreciated about this book was the publisher didn't dumb it down for Americans...as in, they didn't change the British terms and language (like they did in Harry Potter, for example). Most Americans will not know what a bacon buttie is...but that's okay! They can look it up if they want to know.
I will keep reading Casey's books (she has three more Maeve Kerrigan books published with another one on the way), and I'm so glad she redeemed herself after the first one.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated