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A review by cindy_f
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins
4.0
A Slow Fire Burning
I thought Ms. Hawkins wrote quite the ambitious novel. The story starts off with the brutal murder of Daniel in his houseboat. Laura was identified as someone fleeing the area with blood on her clothes. She has quite the interesting back story. At a young age, Laura was in a hit-and-run accident and suffers from physical and mental disabilities. She’s used to being blamed for things.
There are many complex characters whose lives inter-connect in some way. We get all their perspectives. So part of the mystery is “Who killed Daniel?”
There’s novelist Theo and his ex-wife Carla- years ago, their son Ben died in a tragic fall while under the charge of her sister Angela. Daniel is Angela’s son.
Irene is an elderly widow who employs Laura to help her around the house and deliver groceries to her. Irene is Angela’s neighbor.
Miriam is a woman who delivers books and has keen observational skills, the nosy neighbor type. She has some secrets and has it in for one of the other characters.
There are also an array of subplots, such as plagiarism, kidnapping, incest, sexual assault and petty theft. A book within a book is thrown into the story. It depicts an event that occurred to one of these characters, and we get flashbacks of that.
I thought the plotting was very good, and the characters were interesting (some quite despicable). I felt Hawkins captured the emotions really well. Maybe there was just a little too much to keep track of. I felt there was a lot of back and forth. Irene makes a remark about Theo’s book, “all that jumping around in the timeline …just start at the beginning for God’s sake. Why couldn’t people tell a story straight any longer, from start to finish?” I had to snicker at that. But it was suspenseful and the ending was very satisfying.
I thought Ms. Hawkins wrote quite the ambitious novel. The story starts off with the brutal murder of Daniel in his houseboat. Laura was identified as someone fleeing the area with blood on her clothes. She has quite the interesting back story. At a young age, Laura was in a hit-and-run accident and suffers from physical and mental disabilities. She’s used to being blamed for things.
There are many complex characters whose lives inter-connect in some way. We get all their perspectives. So part of the mystery is “Who killed Daniel?”
There’s novelist Theo and his ex-wife Carla- years ago, their son Ben died in a tragic fall while under the charge of her sister Angela. Daniel is Angela’s son.
Irene is an elderly widow who employs Laura to help her around the house and deliver groceries to her. Irene is Angela’s neighbor.
Miriam is a woman who delivers books and has keen observational skills, the nosy neighbor type. She has some secrets and has it in for one of the other characters.
There are also an array of subplots, such as plagiarism, kidnapping, incest, sexual assault and petty theft. A book within a book is thrown into the story. It depicts an event that occurred to one of these characters, and we get flashbacks of that.
I thought the plotting was very good, and the characters were interesting (some quite despicable). I felt Hawkins captured the emotions really well. Maybe there was just a little too much to keep track of. I felt there was a lot of back and forth. Irene makes a remark about Theo’s book, “all that jumping around in the timeline …just start at the beginning for God’s sake. Why couldn’t people tell a story straight any longer, from start to finish?” I had to snicker at that. But it was suspenseful and the ending was very satisfying.