nickimags 's review for:

The Book of Fire by Christy Lefteri

5.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I loved this audiobook from Christy Lefteri, author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo. It was a slow burn, which I tend to avoid, but the writing and narration, made it a compelling story that I didn’t want to stop listening to. 

Set on an unnamed Greek Island, it’s told partly by Irini’s point of view before and after the fire that destroys half the island, and also from The Book of Fire that Irini writes about her experiences during the ordeal. It was a clever way of telling that part of the story, even though it was written in the third person which I don’t always like. The mystery throughout about who started fire and the aftermath was really good, and keep me listening to discover what it was all about . 

As I mentioned before the writing was so good, especially the descriptions of the forest before and after the fire. It reminded me of past holidays to the Greek Islands, decades ago. 

 The author’s note at the end explains where she got her inspiration for the story, following a wildfire on a Greek island. As I was listening to this there was a huge fire on the island of Crete, and in the last couple of days another one in Marseille in the south of France, and one in Spain. It’s frightening! 

Alix Dunmore, a new-to-me narrator, was absolutely superb, drawing me in and keeping my attention the whole time. I definitely want to listen to more audiobooks narrated by her. 

Highly recommend this if you enjoy contemporary, slow burn mysteries.