The Burning Men by Will Shindler
Published by Hodder & Stoughton
Publication Date 6th February 2020
My sincere thanks to the publisher who provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley in return for my honest thoughts and opinions.
When a development in South London catches fire mid-construction, a close-knit team of fire fighters runs in to save a man spotted at the window.
They come out without a body. They quit the service. They plan never to speak to each other again.
Five years later one of them is set alight at his own wedding. Soon after, a second is found, nothing but a smoking corpse. It appears that someone knows what they did that night. What they chose over their duty. And there are still three men left to burn . . .
DI Alex Finn and his new partner DC Mattie Paulsen are an unlikely pairing, but they need to discover who is behind these killings before the next man faces the fire.
My thoughts:
This is an excellent thriller which gripped me from start to finish. The book moves in two time frames: the night of the fire at One Pacific Square five years ago and more recently when ghosts of that night continue to make themselves known.
Fire crews are called to a massive blaze at Pacific Square, a sprawling development site similar to The Shard in London. The group of first responders at the site spot a single figure at a third floor window and are keen to get inside to locate the person but are duty bound to wait for the commander's go-ahead before they can access the building. Decisions made that night will set in motion a chain of events which will cost some of the crew their lives.
Five years on, retired firefighter Adesh Kaul is marrying the love of his life Stephanie. The wedding is a no-expense-spared celebration of their union and everyone is having the best time until panic breaks out with a fire in the gents toilets. The scenes which greet the firefighters are unimaginable. From thereon the detective team signed up to solve what turns out to be a murder scene at the wedding are inundated with suggestions and myths but very little in the way of solid facts. The detective leading the team, DI Alex Finn, is mourning the very recent loss of his wife and is desperate for some sense of normality in his life, hoping that his return to work will give him the routine that he needs. With a new DC on his team that's not what he gets - but the complexities of the case give him little time to worry about things.
Finn sends new recruit Paulsen to discuss recent events with the team investigating a possible link between Pacific Square and a notorious bank heist around the time of the fire which is yet to be solved. She's not made overly welcome, with some of the team getting particularly jumpy in her presence. There are secrets being held close to chests wherever you look in this tale - but somebody seems to know all the secrets and is prepared to go to extreme lengths to make sure those involved pay the ultimate price.
Who is pulling the strings in this whole operation though? With a mythical criminal known as The Handyman seeming to get mentions wherever Finn turns he needs to work out who this person is - if he actually exists - and try to put a stop to any further loss of life.
This is a story of how guilt affects different people in different ways and just how far some people will go to make sure the truth comes out. With shocking scenes throughout, this is a book which had me mulling over the story long after I put it down. Will Shindler has impressed me with his writing and I am keen to read more of his work very soon.
About the Author:
Will Shindler has been a Broadcast Journalist for the BBC for over twenty-five years, spending a decade working in television drama as a scriptwriter on Born and Bred, The Bill and Doctors. His time on these leading prime time dramas has given him a rich grounding in authentic police procedure, powerful character development and gripping narratives. He currently combines reading the news on BBC Radio London with writing crime novels and has previously worked as a television presenter for HTV, a sports reporter for BBC Radio Five Live, and one of the stadium presenters at the London Olympics. The Burning Men is his first novel.
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