Into The Flames by James Delargy
A town under fire. A detective with something to prove. A killer hiding in plain sight.
The small town of Rislake in the picturesque Blue Mountains is about to be engulfed by a major bushfire. The order has been given for the residents to clear out.
But a last sweep uncovers one person is missing: Tracey Hilmeyer, wife of one of the firefighters tackling the blaze.
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Detective Kennard is in town to help with crowd control, but instead he finds himself driving straight towards the inferno to look for Tracey at the Hilmeyer home.
When he gets there, he finds her dead at the bottom of the stairs, and it’s clear she was murdered. With the evacuation almost complete there is barely enough time to save the living never mind the dead.
But Detective Kennard has something to prove and cannot let this one go. Can he solve her murder before the crime scene, and the entire town, turns to ash?
My Review
Just how far would you go to apprehend a killer? Into the eye of a bushfire? Not me, no way.
But Detective Alex Kennard, suffering from PTSD following a hostage situation that went disastrously wrong, is determined to prove himself fit for duty. Except that he’s really not. He’s partnered with Layton, who is a ‘paint-by-numbers’ cop according to Kennard, younger than him by quite a long way, but she has his back, and he has hers.
The book starts out with the discovery of a body, lying at the bottom of the stairs in a house that should have been evacuated with the approaching bushfire. But this is no accident, it’s definitely foul play – the victim’s head has been caved in with a blunt, heavy object. But who killed her and why?
Tracey Hilmeyer’s husband Russell is one of the firefighters. He was a talented football player with a promising career in front of him, but an injury to his knee has left him unable to play, and bitter. Tracey is an artist, but her beloved art gallery has had to close due to a lack of funds, and she is severely depressed. And self-medicates illegally it would seem.
Tracey’s sister Karen lives and works on a farm nearby, and they are not exactly on good terms. They each own half the land, but Karen has to rent Tracey’s half. With all the animals to look after, a husband and three children, it’s hard to make ends meet. However, neither of them are particularly nice or likable, to be honest.
There are so many red herrings. Just when we think we know who killed Tracey, evidence points to someone else, then back again and so on and so forth. The background of the raging bushfire is not something I have read about before, and it gives an intensity to the thrilling investigation. It’s a race against time, before the fire takes the house and all the evidence with it. Can Kennard and Layton beat the flames? Or will the crime go unpunished?
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
James Delargy was born and raised in Ireland, and lived in South Africa, Australia and Scotland before ending up in semi-rural England, where he now lives. He incorporates a diverse knowledge of towns, cities, landscapes and cultures picked up on his travels into his writing. His first novel, 55, was published in 2019 by Simon & Schuster and has been sold to 21 territories to date. It was followed by the standalone thrillers Vanished (2021) and Into the Flames (2024).
