A Slow Fire Burning

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In the bathroom, she dropped the watch into the sink, tore off the paper, dropped the towel on the floor. He'd been in that mooring sixteen days, two full days longer than he was entitled to be, and she'd intended to have a word with him about moving along, even though it wasn't really her job, not her responsibility, but she-unlike most-was a permanent fixture around here and that imbued her with a particular sense of public-spiritedness.

A Slow Fire Burning twists and turns like a great thriller should, but it's also deep, intelligent and intensely human. The various characters and their backstories were interesting, but the reason for the crime still escapes me: I really had to suspend my disbelief to accept the summing up. This was my third Paula Hawkins book and while I found it somewhat slow going, the writing was superb.There’s Miriam from the neighbouring boat who “likes to keep an eye on things”; Laura, a hot-tempered young woman who slept with the victim shortly before his death; Carla, the dead man’s aunt, who is already mourning the death of her sister, Angela; and Irene, Angela’s elderly neighbour who is prone to confusion, but not so much that she doesn’t clock the goings-on next door. Pacey, each short chapter flips between the points of view of three central characters — Laura, Miriam and Carla — with others seen through the eyes of Theo (Carla’s husband) and Irene (a meddling elderly neighbour). The young woman Laura, a tragic past, I felt sorry for and Irene a older woman, with a big heart, the only character I actually liked. I just put it down to the mental instability of the murderer and all the supporting cast members in this long, drawn out drama. One woman in her 20s suffered a brutal hit-and-run as a child that resulted in brain damage causing behavioural issues.

I didn't plan on reading another Paula Hawkins, but Rosamund Pike narrates and I thought just maybe. After a young man is found murdered in a houseboat in London, it brings to the forefront three women who have unique and complicated connections to him. Her sister, mother of the deceased Daniel, was also discovered dead (decomposing against a hot radiator with a broken neck a few weeks before Daniel’s murder.

But her newest thriller, A Slow Fire Burning, may be the one that haunts readers long after they’ve finished it. When she looked up at him, he was looking around the room, taking in the tiny, neat cabin, the books above the sink (One Pot Cooking, A New Way with Vegetables), the herbs on the sill, the basil and coriander in their plastic tubs, the rosemary going woody in a blue-glazed pot. With a brain injury that left her volatile and troubled, Laura stormed off Daniel’s boat after a one-night stand.