A town under fire. A detective with something to prove. A killer hiding in plain sight.
The small town of Rislake in the picturesque Blue Mountains is about to be engulfed by a major bushfire.
The order has been given for the residents to clear out.
But a last sweep uncovers one person is missing: Tracey Hilmeyer, wife of one of the firefighters tackling the blaze.
Detective Kennard is in town to help with crowd control, but instead he finds himself driving straight towards the inferno to look for Tracey at the Hilmeyer home.
When he gets there, he finds her dead at the bottom of the stairs, and it’s clear she was murdered.
With the evacuation almost complete there is barely enough time to save the living never mind the dead.
But Detective Kennard has something to prove and cannot let this one go.
Can he solve her murder before the crime scene, and the entire town, turns to ash?
I really enjoyed this book. I liked our main character Kennard, you could tell that he had unresolved issues but it wasn't immediately clear what had happened. That was revealed within the book and I did feel for him but do think that he was being hard on himself.
Within this he finds himself heading towards a fire but when he finds the dead body he follows his instincts and doesn't let it drop, He definitely doesn't make friends with the chief fire officer but he is determined to prove himself.
I really liked the 'relationship' between him and Layton but it is a rocky one to start with as he's convinced that she has just been sent by their boss to keep an eye on him. Which is partly true, but I think that as the investigation went on she trusted him and his instincts too. I'd love to read another book with them both in to see how the partnership develops.
The storyline itself kept me guessing as there were several people who could br responsible for Traceys murder and it was very cleverly written in leading you to think one way but was it the right way? I really enjoyed the writing style and it kept me gripped!
You can grab a copy here #Aff (If you buy a copy through this link I get a teeny commission of the sale from Amazon)
Huge Thanks to Random Things Tours, James Delargy and Simon Schuster UK for my place on the blog tour.
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