A Lovely Way To Burn by Louise Welsh
Apr. 24th, 2014 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
On the surface, the shootings were nothing to do with what happened later, but they stuck in Stevie Flint’s mind. Their details returned to her during the months ahead and she would begin to think of them as a portent of what was to come, a sign that the city was beginning to turn on itself.
A pandemic is rapidly sweeping the globe. London is a city in crisis, but Stevie Flint is convinced that the sudden death of her boyfriend, Simon, was not from natural causes.
Stevie’s search for Simon’s killer takes her into the depths of the dying city and into a race with death.
Stevie Flint is an ex-journalist who now works as a presenter on a home shopping channel. The money’s good and she’s been seeing Simon (a surgeon at St Thomas’s hospital) for several months. When Simon fails to turn up to a date, Stevie figures that maybe it was down to work. When he fails to return her calls, she wonders if she’s been dumped. When she visits his flat to confront him over it, she finds him dead in bed. The police tell her it’s Sudden Adult Death Syndrome and close the case.
At the same time a new and deadly virus – nicknamed the sweats – arrives in London. As the city begins to fall apart, Stevie receives a posthumous letter from Simon that leads her to suspect that he was murdered. But the police no longer have the resources – or the inclination – to investigate and as the death toll starts to rise, Stevie finds herself in a race against time to find the people who can give her answers before they too are killed by the sweats …
Louise Welsh’s novel (the first in a trilogy) marries crime thriller with apocalyptic horror to so-so effect. Welsh does well at conveying the breakdown of a city to a pandemic and the confusion and fear that takes hold of its population as the body count rises, but the mystery element itself is very much by-the-numbers, particularly as it’s pretty obvious who the villains are. Stevie’s an okay character but I never really bought what made her tick and as she questions the nature of her relationship with Simon, I wondered why she was so keen on discovering what had happened to him. Although there’s a hint as to the possible overarching trilogy arc, I’m not particularly bothered about finding out what it is and won’t rush to read the rest.
The best scenes in the book are those that depict the breakdown of London as the sweats take hold. Welsh does well at showing the effect of the fear and panic but also the strange normality that can also survive (e.g. a scene in a ransacked pub). However I never really connected with Stevie or bought into why she was so invested in finding out the truth about Simon’s death given some of the discoveries she makes.
Ultimately it’s an okay read but I’m not particularly bothered about reading the sequel.
The Verdict:
Louise Welsh’s novel (the first in a trilogy) marries crime thriller with apocalyptic horror to so-so effect. Welsh does well at conveying the breakdown of a city to a pandemic and the confusion and fear that takes hold of its population as the body count rises, but the mystery element itself is very much by-the-numbers, particularly as it’s pretty obvious who the villains are. Stevie’s an okay character but I never really bought what made her tick and as she questions the nature of her relationship with Simon, I wondered why she was so keen on discovering what had happened to him. Although there’s a hint as to the possible overarching trilogy arc, I’m not particularly bothered about finding out what it is and won’t rush to read the rest.
A LOVELY WAY TO BURN was released in the United Kingdom on 27th March 2014. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
A pandemic is rapidly sweeping the globe. London is a city in crisis, but Stevie Flint is convinced that the sudden death of her boyfriend, Simon, was not from natural causes.
Stevie’s search for Simon’s killer takes her into the depths of the dying city and into a race with death.
Stevie Flint is an ex-journalist who now works as a presenter on a home shopping channel. The money’s good and she’s been seeing Simon (a surgeon at St Thomas’s hospital) for several months. When Simon fails to turn up to a date, Stevie figures that maybe it was down to work. When he fails to return her calls, she wonders if she’s been dumped. When she visits his flat to confront him over it, she finds him dead in bed. The police tell her it’s Sudden Adult Death Syndrome and close the case.
At the same time a new and deadly virus – nicknamed the sweats – arrives in London. As the city begins to fall apart, Stevie receives a posthumous letter from Simon that leads her to suspect that he was murdered. But the police no longer have the resources – or the inclination – to investigate and as the death toll starts to rise, Stevie finds herself in a race against time to find the people who can give her answers before they too are killed by the sweats …
Louise Welsh’s novel (the first in a trilogy) marries crime thriller with apocalyptic horror to so-so effect. Welsh does well at conveying the breakdown of a city to a pandemic and the confusion and fear that takes hold of its population as the body count rises, but the mystery element itself is very much by-the-numbers, particularly as it’s pretty obvious who the villains are. Stevie’s an okay character but I never really bought what made her tick and as she questions the nature of her relationship with Simon, I wondered why she was so keen on discovering what had happened to him. Although there’s a hint as to the possible overarching trilogy arc, I’m not particularly bothered about finding out what it is and won’t rush to read the rest.
The best scenes in the book are those that depict the breakdown of London as the sweats take hold. Welsh does well at showing the effect of the fear and panic but also the strange normality that can also survive (e.g. a scene in a ransacked pub). However I never really connected with Stevie or bought into why she was so invested in finding out the truth about Simon’s death given some of the discoveries she makes.
Ultimately it’s an okay read but I’m not particularly bothered about reading the sequel.
The Verdict:
Louise Welsh’s novel (the first in a trilogy) marries crime thriller with apocalyptic horror to so-so effect. Welsh does well at conveying the breakdown of a city to a pandemic and the confusion and fear that takes hold of its population as the body count rises, but the mystery element itself is very much by-the-numbers, particularly as it’s pretty obvious who the villains are. Stevie’s an okay character but I never really bought what made her tick and as she questions the nature of her relationship with Simon, I wondered why she was so keen on discovering what had happened to him. Although there’s a hint as to the possible overarching trilogy arc, I’m not particularly bothered about finding out what it is and won’t rush to read the rest.
A LOVELY WAY TO BURN was released in the United Kingdom on 27th March 2014. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
