Anna finds her employer dead with a warning written on the wall. She runs and changes her name to Irene turning up in Burning Cove, California. Becoming a gossip reporter, she is called by a woman who has some information on up-and-coming star Nick Tremayne. When she turns up at the meeting place she finds the woman dead. Now she is starting to put clues together but will she be right?

I enjoyed this story. I could not put it down. I liked Irene and her get the story at any cost philosophy. Along the way she runs afoul of the owner of the Burning Cove Hotel, Oliver Ward, former magician. He has his secrets also. His attraction to Irene causes him to break a few of his rules. The secondary characters are good. Some are pure evil. Some got what they deserved. And I was wrong on the whodunit part. I was shocked when the explanation came out.

I loved Irene and Oliver. The world building is excellent and I look forward to more in this series.

It is with more than a little trepidation that I start book 1 in a new detective series. The reviews for The Burning men have been many and positive, so I was hopeful that such praise was justified and my goodness how right they were.

The past: A fire is blazing at One Pacific Square, a multi-billion-pound regeneration project. One resident is in situ and the first 4 fire fighters on the scene enter the burning building with little thought for their own safety. The consequences that follow will have fatal repercussions long into the future.

The present: DI Alex Finn & DC Mathilde (Mattie) Paulsen are assigned a new case. Finn has returned to full time duty following the sad demise of his wife Karin. He has much to prove, so many of his fellow officers will be suspicious of his early return and wonder if his state of mind can cope with the pressures of a new and at times complex investigation

Finn and Mattie attend the scene of a brutal crime.The charred body of a young man is discovered in the bathroom of an hotel….it was his wedding day. This is the start of seemingly random killings, but as the body count mounts, a tenuous association emerges between the Pacific Square fire and an historic bank heist. To me the mark of a good story is how believable the main characters are and how much of an impression they make on judgemental readers. DI Finn is a pedantic, organised, considerate private man always concerned with the minutiae, and the great responsibility placed upon him..."how smart his appearance was- the closely trimmed hair, the crisply ironed shirt, the carefully moisturised skin"........"He was a man of certainties and police work was the area of his life where he felt most certain".....DC Poulsen has to prove herself as a capable partner but does little to endear herself to Finn when she berates him in a moment of uncontrollable rage and unprofessionalism.

The pace of the narration is fast and although the plot is detailed it never becomes over complex and is always accessible. Future books in the series will undoubtedly reveal more in the colourful lives of Finn and Paulsen. The Burning Men has been a delight to read with a new army of admirers and I count myself amongst their number.

This book was awesome!

I listened to this on Audible and let me tell you, hearing each character played by diffmmerent narrators was the way to go. The groups' acting was excellent. Each voice was truly distinct which gave it a more organic feel.

The character development was superb, the writing so well done it felt completely immersive! The pacing was brisk but not breakneck. The whole book was one cohesive action packed thrill ride and may even be more amazing than the first book, Aurora Rising. I am waiting (not so) patiently for book #3... it is already on my Will Be Manically Checking For A Release Date list... it's a very exclusive list.

Overall:

I can't reccomend this book highly enough and the audiobook even moreso. My reviews are usually on the lengthy side but this book left me speechless. Was it the best book ever? No but it was a damn fine approximation. You should definitely add this one to your Must Read Sooner Rather Than Later list for the year, you'll thank me later!

Ok, enough list talk... go ahead, pick this book up and dive in... it's worth the time and emotional energy spent.

~ Enjoy

He climbed down to the dry riverbed, hurting all over but more or less functional. His forehead felt warm and wet. He put his hand up, felt the slickness of blood, and wiped it away, reminding himself that head wounds always bleed like crazy.

 

He knew too much about damage to human bodies.

This post is overdue (as was reading this in the first place), and I can't seem to find time to do it right. So, I won't. Here's a quick and dirty way to get it taken care of. I wish I had it in me to do a better job, but I don't. Here's the blurb taken from Petrie's site:

If I had the time to do this properly, here are the things I'd be talking about.

At multiple points both Peter and June note that Peter's having fun when it's dangerous, when things are violent, when the bullets are flying. As a reader, this is great—you don't see Reacher, Charlie Fox, Evan Smoak, etc. enjoying things quite like this. But I'm a little worried about what it says about him as a person.

We get some good backstory on Peter—before he enlisted.

On a related note, Peter has a family! A well-adjusted, not violent, family.

Lewis is back from the first book—he's essentially Hawk and Pike with flair. His growing family ties are a real strength of character.

June is tough, capable, smart. She's complex in a way that most characters in this role usually aren't, and really ought to be.

The villains in this novel are great. Their motives are complex, they don't approach things the way you think they're going to (up to the last couple of chapters).

While trying not to give too much away, I appreciate that Ash doesn't have a scorched-earth approach to his opponents in either book.

Best of all, in the middle of the technothriller stuff, the action hero stuff, and all the rest, there's a real attempt to portray what a vet with PTSD goes through. How it molds everything he does, but doesn't define him.

The biggest compliment I can give is this: it kept me awake when I should have been. Since I got my new CPAP last summer, I haven't been able to read more than 2-5 pages with it on before I'm out like a light. So imagine how shocked I was when I realized that I'd barreled through over 50 pages one night! That's a feat.

This is a great thrill-ride, I'm not going to wait another year and a half before I get to the next one (it's sitting on my shelf as we speak). I strongly recommend the Peter Ash books.

CURRENT READS

I decided to go back to my Boschverse read. I got bogged down with The Gods of Guilt, which is one of Connelly's Mickey Haller books. I am not so much of a fan of those books, so I finally decided to just DNF it and move on. I'm back with Harry, and much happier!

I'm also still reading The Mirror and the Light, but this obviously is not the book I want to be reading right now, because I find myself avoiding picking it up. It's not that it's not a good back - it's just not what I'm in the mood for.

Which also goes for my reread of The House of Mirth. I love Lily Bart, but this is also one that I've been avoiding picking up. I'll probably try to focus on it over the weekend.

WEEKEND AHOY!

On tap for tomorrow is the buddy read of Patricia Wentworth's second Miss Silver book, The Case is Closed. I may also move on to Mr. Brading's Collection, which is the 17th Miss Silver, and is also the book that I am up for reading next.

Let's see your #fridayreads!