It was with great anticipation that I picked up “A slow fire burning”, the latest novel from the pen of Paula Hawkins. If you are not familiar with Paula Hawkins, she is the author of the highly acclaimed “The girl on the train”.
Like Rachel Watson, the main character in The girl on the train, the characters in this novel, Laura, Miriam and Carla, are flawed and damaged. Laura, a feisty young woman has a temper and a history of mental instability, which makes it easy to assume that she would be a criminal. But then there is Miriam, a woman who gives the impression that she knows more than she lets on, but is, in fact, harbouring a damaging secret from her past. Finally, there is Carla who seems the most conventional of the three, but like Miriam, is also harbouring grief and resentment from her past. Throw into the mix Daniel, the man who is the link between the three women.
Hawkins has the knack of taking quite an ordinary setting and imbuing it with a layer of mystery, menace and atmosphere. The novel is set in the east end of London around the Regent’s Canal area in Hoxton. The action takes place on a houseboat as well as in regular houses. Living on a houseboat is unconventional in itself, but the body found on the houseboat stirs the story into action.
We know who the dead person is, but the mystery, of course, is who did it and why. As a reader we feel we are on a roller coaster because we are steered towards thinking that maybe it is the most obvious person who is responsible, but as the saying goes, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Then we are lead to believe that the secretiveness of another character indicates that they are responsible. But are they?
As the story unfolds, we realise that the plot is like a slow burning fire that takes a while to build up heat, but can sometimes lead to an explosive conclusion. My advice would be hang in there and keep reading until the end. You won’t be disappointed.
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