After The Girl on the Train showed up in readers' hands back in 2015, many were excited to see what writer Paula Hawkins would come up with next. But when 2017's Into the Water was published, readers were largely disappointed. I decided to go ahead and take a chance on Hawkins' most recent attempt, A Slow Fire Burning, which was another mystery/suspense thriller meant to keep readers guessing.
The Situation: When Laura was young, she was hit by and car and her entire life was altered. Now she has a noticeable limp, can barely hold down a job, and is always in trouble for one reason or another. She already has a court appointment for that time she stabbed some guy in the hand with a fork. Now it seems she is suspected of murder, for actually ending a life. Yes, she was with Daniel in his houseboat last night, and yes they had an argument. But she did not kill him. That is ridiculous. Still, things look bad for Laura, and because she has a hard time controlling what comes out of her mouth, she almost cannot help but make things worse.
The Problem: It would be easy to pin everything on Laura, as she is the type of person people can easily point to when something goes wrong. She has a reputation and was in the victim's home. But Daniel has his own troubled past. When he was young, he saw his young cousin die while they were both supposed to be under the watch of his alcoholic mother. His aunt and uncle never moved past the grief, with their marriage eventually ending, though the two remain close. And then there is the strange yet unremarkable Miriam, who lives in the houseboat next to Daniel's. She does not know who killed him, but she has someone she would love to implicate, someone she would love to frame as revenge for her own past injustices. All of these moving parts make the case a bit more complicated, but poor Laura always manages to stand out as the obvious culprit.
Genre, Themes, History: This is a suspense thriller set in present day England, with shifting point of views between a handful of connected characters. At the center of the story is Laura, a young woman with a past injury that has significantly complicated her future. Strangely enough, her situation is actually somewhat outside of and disconnected from everyone else's, but she happened to be in Daniel's houseboat the night before he was murdered, and her volatile nature is not easy to move past. Certain chapters are also preceded by excerpts from a popular thriller novel written by one of the characters, a story that at first feels like background information, but turns out to have connections to what is going on in the present. While characters like Laura are doing their best to move past what has happened to them, others are finding it impossible to let things go, nearly ruining what could be their future.
My Verdict: Even with an intriguing plot, and a mystery worth being excited about, this book still seems messy, and almost unfinished, even though there is a clear conclusion. Some of the characters do not appear to have much thought behind them, as if they were created simply as plot devices for the others to move around and use for their own stories. Also, the book could have probably had another 50 pages added onto it, if only to fill out some details and add more story to the minor characters. When the mystery begins to come together, all of the pieces are there, and the clues add up, but it somehow still seems like everything was hastily thrown together. This book may prove to be another disappointment for readers of thriller and mystery.
Favorite Moment: When Laura manages to see Miriam for what she is.
Favorite Character: Laura is incredibly rough around the edges, but she is trying her best, and she is fortunate to have found a friend in Irene, an older woman with whom she gets along surprisingly well.
Recommended Reading: The Girl on the Train still remains Hawkins' best and most interesting novel.
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