A Slow Fire Burning

[A Slow Fire Burning]
Year: 
2021
Type: 
Public: 
Publisher: 
Penguin
Year of publication: 
2021
Pages: 
320
Moral assessment: 
Type: Literature
Nothing inappropriate.
Some morally inappropriate content.
Contains significant sections contrary to faith or morals.
Contains some lurid passages, or presents a general ideological framework that could confuse those without much Christian formation.
Contains several lurid passages, or presents an ideological framework that is contrary or foreign to Christian values.
Explicitly contradicts Catholic faith or morals, or is directed against the Church and its institutions.
Literary quality: 
Recommendable: 
Transmits values: 
Sexual content: 
Violent content: 
Vulgar or obscene language: 
Ideas that contradict Church teaching: 
The rating of the different categories comes from the opinion of Delibris' collaborators

A young man in his early twenties is found stabbed to death in his home. The investigation focuses on three women: Laura, the young woman with whom he had spent the night; Carla, the boy's aunt; and Miriam, the neighbor who found him. All of them are hiding part of the truth. And, without knowing it, they are connected by different events of the past, which have made them live with resentment towards society, and perhaps also towards the deceased.

An intelligent crime novel, extraordinarily well thought out. The author jumps in each chapter from one temporal space to another, without informing the reader, who is forced to make an effort to follow the plot, otherwise very interesting. What is less important in this crime is the police work: what is interesting is to know how all that resentment, that resentment, is simmering in the souls of the protagonists.

One of the girls, Laura, uses very foul language, and some irreverence to the Eucharist. And in general, as in so many crime novels, the lives of the protagonists are not very exemplary.

Author: Javier Barbés, Spain
Update on: Nov 2021