Recent Reads: If These Flames Could Talk by Michael Burnham

If These Flames Could Talk by Michael Burnham  Publisher:  Mansfield Bound
Publication Date:  February 22, 2022

 

Format: Hardback
Source: Bought/ Own

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

Some cemetery vaults are no longer used to store the dead, but in the twisted mind of one Vermont man they make an excellent place to keep the living.

A teenage girl leaves home after her mother’s untimely death and returns years later in search of closure. Instead of finding the healed scars of tragedy, she’s kidnapped and swept underground. There she discovers her past is connected to decades of crimes that span from cold cemetery vaults to fiery cremation chamber walls.

Addiction, Jealousy, and Religion act as catalysts for the horrific spree of events that follow, testing her will to survive as her captor seeks his warped version of justice through Needles, Fire, and Ash.

Review: 

I know this author and was super excited to read his book. It is a thriller about a young woman that is abducted by her brother and put in an underground room/ vault in a local (to me) cemetery. The book is full of mental health issues like depressions, anxiety, and possible schizophrenia, there is family drama, and some religious delusions as well. It was a lot of backstory. 

Overall, the pace was good, the plot was interesting, and there were lots of characters. I found the character development to be a little lacking at the cost of the suspense and thriller aspects of the plot, and I am not completely sure how I feel about that because I liked the plotline and read the book pretty quickly. 

Given the local nature of the book, I would have liked for it to feel more local. I know that seems strange and maybe asking too much but aside from a few locations and brief descriptions, this could have been any old town in a lot of ways, and I think that the history of White River and really talking about the history could have lended well to the overall story. For example, the train systems, the drug use, and sketchiness of some areas etc. (I think there is something about being 100 miles from the Canadian border that has something to do with it...) 

As far as the plot went, I felt like there wasn't enough police involvement at any stage of the book, and I won't go into more detail because I don't want to spoil anything, but it just seemed far-fetched given all the things going on. On top of that some of the dialogue was just kind of bad or off-putting which always broke me away from the story a bit.

Overall, i liked the mystery and how it all came together in the end, I was a little lost as it came full circle, but it all worked out and it was an interesting thriller. If you like small town thriller/mysteries, you might like this one as well.