The Burning by Jane Casey
Maeve Kerrigan is a detective in the MET and originally from Ireland. She lives and breathes her job and is good at what she does. The Burning follows her as she works on a particularly disturbing series of killings by a suspect referred to as 'The Burning Man'. Maeve deals with sexism at work, some ill placed jokes on her Irish heritage and red hair, but most of all, her ability to continue to be focused.
The series of killings are enigmatic, the killer selecting young, pretty, vulnerable females and disposing of them in a degrading manner. The entire community is in fear, particularly the young female demographic. Casey is very good at introducing possible suspects, causing the reader to switch from one to the other and at times feeling as though the killer might not be caught at all. She delivers on the promises she makes to her readers and thankfully does not try to make the plot more convoluted that it need be, which is refreshing from a modern day crime novel. It could be accused of being a little crime-fiction-by-numbers if you are in the habit of dissecting a books methods and structures, but it is by no means boring and I found it thoroughly enjoyable, with a satisfying conclusion.
Great for any reader wanting a bit of excitement, nicely constructed with likable characters along with the gift of those characters we don't want to like as well. I read it much faster than I thought I would.
Submitted by Noreen
