The Briton Paula Hawkins excels in the art of constructing brilliant plots that draw us into a web with many ramifications, like her previous novels, The girl on the train and At the bottom of the water.
With The one that burns, the former London journalist proves once again that appearances are often deceptive. Who killed Daniel on his barge? Around him gravitate characters who would all have a good reason to commit such a crime, since each of them hides dark secrets: Laura, the young woman with whom he spent his last night; her aunt Carla and her ex-husband Theo; Miriam, a strange and lonely woman who lives on the next boat. Paula Hawkins distills clues throughout the novel, each time revealing pieces of the puzzle to us before again sowing doubt in our minds as to the identity of the murderer. But the most interesting is undoubtedly this immersion in the intimacy of the characters, because Paula Hawkins watches with compassion on their past, revealing in detail the family tragedies and the dramas of youth which made them the adults they have become … and without which their existence would probably have taken a whole new turn.
The one that burns
Paula hawkins
Sonatine
346 pages