*I was provided with this book, Between Two Fires, free of charge so I could read it and create this review. All opinions are my own.*
If the back of the book is to be believed, Between Two Fires is a story of a woman with a husband and a lover. I was surprised to find that the story barely focused on the woman and instead followed the man she was having an affair with. I’m not sure what the “Two Fires” are supposed to be if not this woman’s two relationships.
Anyway, disregarding the blurb on the back of the book, this story was quite interesting. The main character, Rudy, comes to this island for the “rich and famous” to ghost write the tell-all of a rich and interesting man, Edward Tennyson. But it turns out this man has actually lost his fortune, and he is the husband of Rudy’s lover Bridget. The story starts out seeming like it will focus on their relationships but it quickly leaves Bridget behind.
Rudy becomes embroiled in a murder investigation as a prime suspect. Of course he decides to investigate on his own as he feels like local police aren’t working hard enough. Bridget tries very hard to dissuade Rudy from taking matters into his own hands but he doesn’t listen.
The murder mystery idea in Between Two Fires was quite intricate. A lot of characters were involved, with a fair bit of misdirection, and some very unsavory bad guys. A few areas had awkward wording – partly because some folks in the book spoke with a Caribbean inflection which can be hard to follow. Some of it was just editing issues. Maybe another look through with an editor could have been done. It didn’t make the book hard to read, just nit-picky stuff I noticed.
Many characters are involved in this story. I actually lost track of them a few times overall. I feel like the plot was supposed to go one way and got sidetracked – never to return to the original story. The flow of the writing was fine, easy to read, and the chapters weren’t too long, but the coherence was not great. I would have liked the book to follow through with the suggestions on the back of the love triangle between Edward, Bridget and Rudy. The ending to that piece of plot was very unsatisfactory.
Overall Between Two Fires was an easy fiction story. A little more editing would have made it better. If I hadn’t been so busy these last two weeks I would have read it in about 4 or 5 days. And remember, that’s mom-reading time. As in after the kids go to bed, and in short bursts at work. I can still sneak in the occasional weekend afternoon read (when we’re home!)
~Jess
