A Slow Fire Burning

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Read by the actor Rosamund Pike, it is set in the aftermath of a brutal stabbing and is told from multiple points of view. Published in over fifty languages, it has been a Number 1 bestseller around the world and was a box office hit film starring Emily Blunt.

Compelling and intricately plotted, it was its flawed and utterly credible women, and the warmth and wit of their irreverent voices, that I loved the most. The three women’s back stories are shared in flashbacks while their lives intersect as the novel builds toward its climax.First published in 1923, it has been translated into more than 100 languages and was loved by Gandhi and the Beatles. The towpath was still, the roads up above quiet too, no sounds save for the throb of a generator, the squabble of moorhens ghosting gently past. None of them are likeable, and none of them see any of the other characters in a good light, either. I love Paula Hawkins, and this is why - A Slow Fire Burning twists and turns like a great thriller should, but it's also deep, intelligent and intensely human . The characters were deliciously complex and utterly authentic and that is what has stayed with me the longest - their voices, their fragility, their distinct stories.

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.

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. The first half of the book was a bit slow and it took some time to figure out each character's personality and how it played into the storyline. She discovered the body after all, has long-standing beef with Daniel’s family and stole a key piece of evidence from the crime scene. hawkins' debut thriller The Girl on the Train came out hot on the heels of the film-adaptation of Gone Girl, when the psych suspense market was craving MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE, and it became a runaway bestseller that everyone either loved or loved to hate, but its success ushered in a WAVE of twisty suspense novels trying to hitch a ride aboard the gone girl on the (gravy) train, so many of which unabashedly featured the word "girl" or "woman" in their titles. Maybe I was expecting to read something similar to her debut : something riveting, more mysterious, exciting, character driven with smart twists and you didn’t see it coming revelations but it was full of crowded unlikable characters and suffering from lack of mystery.

The third thriller from British novelist Paula Hawkins — whose debut book “The Girl on the Train” (2015) sold millions and made millions more in theaters with Emily Blunt in the starring role — “A Slow Fire Burning” continues Hawkins’ penchant for telling stories from multiple points of view. Underneath the blood, all that blood, there was something else, something older, sweet and rank, like lilies left too long in the vase.

When a young man is found gruesomely murdered in a London houseboat, it triggers questions about three women who knew him.