Paula Hawkins, best known for The Girl on the Train, delivers another character-driven mystery, but A Slow Fire Burning doesn’t quite hit the same mark. The novel opens with the gruesome discovery of a young man’s body on his houseboat. The suspects? Laura, a troubled woman with a tragic past who was last seen with him. Carla, his estranged aunt, who had a secret meeting with him earlier in the week. And Miriam, the woman who found the body—could she be hiding something too? As their backstories unfold, secrets come to light, weaving a web of betrayal and hidden trauma. While the novel does a great job of fleshing out its characters, I found myself more interested in their personal stories than in the central mystery of who killed Daniel. The complex backstories sometimes overshadowed the murder plot, making it difficult to stay fully engaged. If you enjoy multi-perspective narratives and deeply flawed characters, you may still appreciate this slow-burning mystery.