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A review by book_concierge
Set the Night on Fire by Libby Fischer Hellmann
2.0
2.5***
Lila Hilliard has reluctantly come home for Christmas; her father is recovering from hip surgery and needs her, but she doesn’t really get along with her twin brother Danny any longer. A quick errand to get some new lights for the Christmas tree takes longer than she expected, and when she returns the house is in flames. Both her father and brother perish in the inferno. The official verdict is a faulty string of lights, but Lila was certain she had unplugged the tree before leaving the house. A few days later a stranger on a motorcycle shoots at her, missing only because a good Samaritan intervenes. Clearly someone is after her and her family. But why?
Before Lila (or the reader) can get an answer to this present day mystery, we need some back story. And so Hellmann drops the suspense to take us back to 1968-1970 Chicago and a group of college drop-outs who are passionate about challenging the establishment, ending the war in Vietnam, and changing society.
Hellmann is a good writer. The first and third part of this book prove that she can craft a suspenseful plot with sufficient twists and turns to keep the reader’s interest (though I had figured out the bad guys much earlier than our heroine and hero, who seemed ridiculously clueless and naïve in their actions). The main problem I had with this book, however, is the long detour back in time that Hellmann took in the Part Two (Chapters 22 through 44) in order to set up the great conspiracy. This took far too long to explain the important connections and motives, and completely disrupted the flow of the central plot.
Lila Hilliard has reluctantly come home for Christmas; her father is recovering from hip surgery and needs her, but she doesn’t really get along with her twin brother Danny any longer. A quick errand to get some new lights for the Christmas tree takes longer than she expected, and when she returns the house is in flames. Both her father and brother perish in the inferno. The official verdict is a faulty string of lights, but Lila was certain she had unplugged the tree before leaving the house. A few days later a stranger on a motorcycle shoots at her, missing only because a good Samaritan intervenes. Clearly someone is after her and her family. But why?
Before Lila (or the reader) can get an answer to this present day mystery, we need some back story. And so Hellmann drops the suspense to take us back to 1968-1970 Chicago and a group of college drop-outs who are passionate about challenging the establishment, ending the war in Vietnam, and changing society.
Hellmann is a good writer. The first and third part of this book prove that she can craft a suspenseful plot with sufficient twists and turns to keep the reader’s interest (though I had figured out the bad guys much earlier than our heroine and hero, who seemed ridiculously clueless and naïve in their actions). The main problem I had with this book, however, is the long detour back in time that Hellmann took in the Part Two (Chapters 22 through 44) in order to set up the great conspiracy. This took far too long to explain the important connections and motives, and completely disrupted the flow of the central plot.