Alex North is fast becoming one of my favourite novelists and is always an immediate buy when his latest comes out. Therefore back in July at the TOPCWF his new book was one of the first I bought when I arrived.
The Half Burnt House tells the story of Katie who has always looked after her brother except for one slip up when young which changed the course of both their lives. Years later a body is found and the prime murder suspect is Katie’s brother Christopher. She is determined to prove that her brother is innocent, but in doing so she’s soon putting her own family in danger.
The Half Burnt House is Alex North’s third novel and each one just gets better and better. The writing is superb as always and the highly detailed and complicated plot is handled flawlessly. The story flits between characters and timelines as gradually all of the pieces slowly start to fit together. Throughout the novel there also runs a philosophical element introducing the idea of determinism, not a concept I knew much about before but it gave an added dimension to an excellent crime story (and I learnt something)
There was a big mix of characters and all of them were well described. Katie is one of the main protagonists, and I liked the fact that it shows her and her husband as a ‘normal’ couple, a pair who met at school and years later they are happily (mainly) married. Her relationship with her brother is complicated by his very checkered history, yet she still puts herself at risk to save him. I very much enjoyed the relationship between the two police officers Pettifer and Laurence, the humour of their back and forth banter added a welcome relief to the more grisly elements of the book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this atmospheric and creepy story which is as good as you would expect from this outstanding author. I would highly recommend this.
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