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SEPTEMBER 22�29, 2021
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Review: ‘A Slow Fire Burning,’ by Paula Hawkins
A third compulsively readable
whodunit from the author of
“The Girl on the Train”
By Malcom Forbes
Star Tribune
E
arly one Sunday morning on
a quiet stretch of London’s
Regent’s Canal, Miriam makes a
grisly discovery. In the houseboat
next to hers lies the bloodied
body of a young man. He has
been stabbed repeatedly and,
as a fi nishing touch, has “a wide
smile carved into his throat.”
The police arrive, the victim is
identifi ed as Daniel Sutherland,
and Miriam’s shock is replaced
by a sense of calm, even op-
timism — for this murder has
given her “an opportunity to
avenge the wrong that had been
done to her.”
Paula Hawkins’ third novel
gets off to an intriguing start.
Miriam turns out to be one of
several female protagonists with
a link to the deceased. This be-
ing a Hawkins novel, those char-
acters are all prime suspects
with both the means and the mo-
tive for murder. They have dark
secrets, disturbing thoughts,
unhealed wounds and desperate
urges to settle old scores. But
which one was crazed enough to
kill, and why?
Miriam is a busybody who
records “comings and goings”
on the canal in a little black book.
She is also a magpie who takes
people’s small possessions as
“keepsakes” — including a key,
“still sticky with blood,” from
the crime scene. Carla, Daniel’s
aunt, is still mourning her sister,
Angela, who died in a supposed
accident eight weeks previously.
But it is nothing like the grief that
engulfed her after her 3-year-
old son fell to his death while in
Angela’s care.
And there is Laura — or, as
she is known locally, “Mad Laura”
— who had been on a date with
Daniel that ended with a blaz-
ing argument. Detectives fi nd
her fi ngerprints in his boat and
a bloodstained T-shirt in her
home. It isn’t the fi rst time this
damaged individual has been
in trouble with the police; the
question is whether she has
progressed from minor off enses
to full-scale murder.
As the mystery deepens, two
other characters emerge as pos-
sible culprits: Carla’s ex-husband,
Theo, and Laura’s only friend,
Irene. With the cast complete,
Hawkins’ elaborate guessing
game becomes even more fi end-
ish. Episodes from back stories
show how characters have
processed pain and trauma into
hatred and bitterness. Some have
suff ered betrayals of trust, others
have been used and abused.
We examine each profi le, sift
the scattered details — a bad
mother, a missing dog, a series
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“A Slow Fire Burning,” by Paula Hawkins
of graphic sketches — and
follow the twists and turns to a
denouement spring-loaded with
one or two fi nal surprises.
At one point, author Theo
jokes about taking inspiration
from Daniel’s murder and writ-
ing a book called “The Boy on
the Boat.” This is, of course, a
sly nod toward Hawkins’ inter-
national bestseller “The Girl on
the Train.”
“A Slow Fire Burning” lacks
the suspense of that debut but
it still manages to be a gripping
page-turner. The source of its
narrative force is its compellingly
unpredictable characters. As
Miriam puts it, “We all have our
monstrous moments.”
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