Burning Lies (Helene Young, Michael Joseph)

Helene Young is the recent winner of the Australian Romance Readers Association Favourite Romantic Suspense Award for her second novel Shattered Sky. Burning Lies is her third book and her first with her new publisher. After Kait Scott’s husband starts a devastating fire that claims both his own life and her father’s, Kait moves her family to far north Queensland to rebuild their lives. However, her husband’s crime hasn’t died with him. An arsonist is stalking the family across the Atherton Tablelands and it looks like Kait’s destruction is his ultimate goal. Everyone is a suspect, and Kait’s new neighbour Ryan appears more suspicious than most. While the characters still take to the skies (Young is a pilot and her characters often work in the aviation industry), Burning Lies is much more earth-bound than the author’s previous novels, but no less suspenseful for this setting. Young taps into the primal fear of fire that many Australians share, using it as a catalyst to bring her characters’ simmering issues to boil. Despite the dramatic circumstances surrounding their developing relationship, Kait and Ryan’s characters are both very grounded, and the uplifting ending is solid and believable. While this novel doesn’t have the same depth as Bronwyn Parry’s recent Dead Heat, one thing is very clear: it’s becoming a readers’ market for strong Australia-set romantic suspense novels.

Kate Cuthbert is the romance blogger for Booktopia

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews