A Slow Fire Burning: A Novel

This is the much expected and hyped new novel by Paula Hawkins, the ex-journalist who became known worldwide after her enormously successful debut novel, The Girl on the Train. The book, which became an international bestseller, has been adapted into a feature film by Tate Taylor starring Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett, and Justin Theroux. The movie was equally well-received by the audiences around the world as it mirrored the complex narrative structure of the text, relaying the story through several points of view consisting mainly of women whose lives are in turmoil. Hawkins' protagonists are broken women who face major personal challenges like alcohol and drug addiction, dysfunctional relationships, and problematic love lives.In A Slow Fire Burning, the author re-employs the themes and tropes that made her previous novels to stand out from the majority of the genre's works. Once again, the reader encounters a group of troubled women whose lives become interlocked after a gruesome murder takes place in a narrowboat moored in the canal. Hawkins emphasizes on the protagonists' emotional state and their innermost thoughts that are expressed vividly on page. She also imparts their background stories in a slow, deliberate manner allowing the reader to digest and fully comprehend the tangled relationships between them. As the title suggests, this is a slow-burning psychological thriller that rewards the patient reader and its allure lies in the author's well-crafted characterization and absorbing main storyline.Daniel Sutherland gets stabbed to death in his own boat and the prime suspect is none other than Laura, a young woman with a history of mental illness and family troubles. Laura is presumably the last person who saw Daniel alive and she has also been seen walking covered in blood on the day of the murder. Laura's bizarre, disinhibited behavior makes things worse for her as the detectives investigating the case become convinced that she is the culprit. Daniel's neighbor, Miriam, is an unimpressive, middle-aged woman who carries a dark secret from her past and also the individual who discovers his body. Miriam finds Laura's key in the crime scene and pockets it without informing the authorities. It is evident that she has a plan, but the reader is kept in the dark regarding her true intentions.Carla Myers is Daniel's aunt, sister of his mother, Angela, and she is devastated to hear the news of her nephew's death. Carla and Angela shared a strained a strained relationship ever after Carla's three-year-old son tragic demise in Angela's house fifteen years ago. Carla and her husband, Theo, blamed Angela for neglect that led to their offspring's fall to death and both of them have been unable to forgive her ever since. Angela, who was at the time struggling with her alcoholism, was also found dead a few weeks before Daniel's murder in a suspicious domestic accident. Was it really an accident or was there foul play involved?Daniel's and Angela's deaths constitute the novel's big mysteries, but there are also sub-plots that are equally puzzling and gripping. As the story unravels, the reader has the time to speculate about the possible culprit, though each time we have to adjust our theories according to the new standards imposed by the new information and -many-plot twists. Unlike The Girl on the Train, this time the narration is linear with some interjected fragments where we read snippets of Theo's popular crime novel, titled "The One Who Got Away". The importance of those parts becomes obvious only in the final pages of the novel.Overall, I found A Slow Fire Burning to be easy-to-read and highly entertaining, though, on the negative side, I was expecting something more from the finale. Nevertheless, it is a book that in all probability will be chosen to be adapted into another film as it has a cinematic touch having to do mainly with the well-realized characters and fast tempo in which it unfolds. Personally, I liked The Girl on the Train more, perhaps because of my preference in non-conventional narrative styles. Anyway, it is an enjoyable read and you won't regret buying it, especially if you are a fan of the novels written by Gillian Flynn and Liane Moriarty. I will certainly keep my eyes open from future releases by Paula Hawkins as she is a daring crime writer possessing an in-depth knowledge of the female psychology.

This thriller, my third Paula Hawkins novel, earned <b>4 Stars</b> from me.<b>SUMMARY</b>A young man, Daniel, is found dead on his house boat. Miriam, a nosy neighbor finds him and reports it to the police. Miriam also reports seeing a woman leaving the boat. A man, Theo, reports seeing a different woman leaving the scene with blood on her shirt. Theo and Miriam have a past connection, not exactly a positive one. Theo is Daniel's estranged ex-uncle and he doesn't have a lot of love for him.The police end up tracking down Laura, the woman Theo saw leaving Daniel's house boat and aggressively questioned her. She admits to having had a fight with Daniel, which got physical, that morning but swears he was alive when she left. As the police get to know more about Laura, they find she has a history of violent outbursts and it becomes increasingly difficult for them to believe her claims of innocence.Additionally, there is a whole "book inside a book" thing going on. Miriam had a traumatic experience as a young teenager and has written a manuscript of a book about it, but, she claims, a well known author stole her story and published it under his name with a different title. So, in addition to Daniel's murder mystery, we have both versions of Miriam's story.The story seems a little complicated and confusing in the beginning as the reader is trying to figure out who all the characters are, how they fit into the story and tries to process the "book inside a book" concept. As the plot progresses, each characters role in the story becomes defined, and things get very interesting.<b>WHAT I LOVED</b>The story was set in England and I LOVE my Brit-Lit!There were some great twists and turns.I loved all the back stories in everyone. It gave me a deeper understanding of why each of the characters acted the way they did.<b>WHAT I DIDN'T LOVE</b>I spent about 2/3rds of the book trying desperately to find one single character to like. It finally happened when Irene was introduced.Most of the characters were pretty horrible people, and they were adults, so their behavior is pretty much an established it pattern, but at the end, the reader was supposed to believe that several of them had grown as people. I didn't find it believable.<b>OVERALL</b>It was a fun book to read, it kept me on my toes guessing. I would recommend it for any of my GR friends who are looking for a twisty thriller and are okay with not loving the characters.

This is a wonderful mystery, several mysteries really, and very well structured to weave puzzle upon puzzle with an unexpectedly neat twist at the end. Highly recommended to anyone who likes an excellently constructed mystery and does not mind layers of past trauma memories rearing ugly heads to drop clues until everything is sorted out with many surprises. Extremely clever indeed! I have read PW's 2 other books but this is far and away the best.

This was this month’s book club pick, and I loved The Girl on the Train by the same author, which I read some time ago a couple of times, which is quite unusual for me, so I was really excited to get my hands on a copy, so much so that I bought myself a hardcover copy thinking I would love it. What a different read this turned out to be, though.This is a well-written book, the words flow nicely, and the title was a great success, depicting the slow fire burning of anger, resentment, jealousy, hatred and deceit. Although fires are usually ferocious and burn fast, I expected a fast-paced book where I would fly through the pages. I did get through this quickly due to the short chapters, but it was a disappointing read for me overall.The plot didn’t hold my interest well, though. We start at the end with the finding of Daniel’s body on his rented canal boat and then work back through the character’s backstories and who could possibly be responsible and why. There are several possibilities, all with slightly plausible reasons why they may have wanted Daniel gone.A Slow Fire Burning has a large cast, which I found easy to keep track of, with interlocking stories that they aren’t aware of themselves. A book within a book initially adds to the intrigue but ends with a very unbelievable twist.The characters we unlikeable and unreliable aside from tragic, young Laura. I felt a lot of the plot relied upon the vagueness and mental instability of many characters, including Laura. Without this, I felt the story wouldn’t hold together well. However, it is a book you need to pay attention to so that you don’t miss anything along the way.Laura was in a horrific accident when she was ten years old and has been left with significant injuries, including some social issues where she cannot control herself or act appropriately at times. Always getting herself in trouble, she has been tragically abandoned by her awful parents and has been left to defend herself, which she very clearly struggles with. The relationship she forms with the 80-year-old lady (whose name I can’t remember) is lovely, they care for one another, and it’s an excellent example of young and old helping each other and keeping company to the benefit of both parties.Carol and her ex-husband Theo are an odd couple. Daniel is Carol’s nephew, and they are grieving the loss of their three-year-old son, Ben, fifteen years ago. Miriam lives on the boat next door to Daniel’s and has a history with Theo. The relationships are pretty complicatedly entwined, so pay attention!Unfortunately, I felt this was a slow and, at times, laborious read. The ending was what put an end to a better review though. There were unbelievable occurrences, what felt like a rushed ending where parts were tied up but felt very lazily done. I am not sure who was responsible, despite someone being convicted of the crime, and some of the characters didn’t really have any input at the ending.

I loved The Girl on the Train. When I first started reading this book I thought the characters were quite depressing. However as the story builds I found the storyline and characters engaging and enjoyed the book.

A good story but wasn't consistently gripped throughout. Well written and would read another by the author. Lacked a little excitement.

A slow but tense psychotic thriller in the third of the author's novel that I have read to date. As anticipated, the author has left no stone unturned to entertain her readers. The need for revenge gradually brewing inside the characters, built up over a long period because of deceit and treachery, eventually leading to murder is aptly revealed in the pace of the book as well as on the title. The plot revolves around the gruesome death of Daniel Sutherland, a man in his twenties on his houseboat. Eyewitness by another houseboat resident, Miriam leads to a young girl Laura, who seemingly had a very disturbing past and childhood resulting in her unpredictable behavior. A few weeks before, Angela, Daniel's mother died in an accident. Then there is Angela's sister Carla and her ex-husband Theo who have parted ways after another alleged accidental death of their three-year-old son fifteen years back, left in the care of Angela and Daniel. Additionally, there is an old lady Irene who is Angela's neighbor and friend and who is now supported for her grocery purchases by Laura. With so many characters in the plot, one would begin to wonder, if these deaths are in any way connected? Everyone has a motive and so everyone is a suspect. The story is narrated in the POV of various characters with each of them elucidating their innocence. But, surely the culprit is one amongst them. As the story paces and peeks into each of the character's past, the suspense slowly begins to unfurl with twists and turns. An exciting novel emanating from the author's thoughtful inkling making it an arousing read.