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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.
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?
It's such a pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for Into the Flames by James Delargy today. Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for my advance copy of the novel.
Having thoroughly enjoyed James Delargy's previous book, Vanished when I read it a couple of years ago, I've been keeping an eye out for a new release and I'm delighted to say that Into the Flames did not disappoint! This is another thriller set in Australia and it really couldn't take place anywhere else. James Delargy brilliantly brings Rislake to life and this is a small town under siege – with the enemy at the gates a major bushfire. The atmospheric descriptions are terrifyingly immersive; I could almost hear, smell and even taste the noise, smoke and devastation wrought by the fire.
At the start of the book, North Rislake has already been evacuated. South Rislake is on Amber alert, meaning its residents have to prepare for possible evacuation. Some of the chapters open with an update on the time, wind direction and speed, and whether the evacuation status has changed. With events taking place over the course of little more than a day, Into the Flames is an addictively propulsive thriller and the stakes are even higher because while firefighters and volunteers desperately attempt to hold back the flames, Detective Sergeant Alex Kennard faces his own race against time.
Although most of the townsfolk have been accounted for, Tracy Hilmeyer, the wife of Russell Hilmeyer, one of the firefighters is missing. Kennard joins Russell and his friend, Joel as they try to find her, but their search ends in tragedy when her body is discovered at the Hilmeyer's house. This is no accident, however, and Kennard quickly realises she's been murdered. This is a murder case like no other, though and he has to fight to save the scene in order to figure out who killed Tracy – while battling demons of his own. Kennard is an outsider. He was formerly a detective in Parramatta but has moved to the Blue Mountains for a new start. Already bored and jaded by the pace of life in Katoomba, he has volunteered to help police the evacuation of Rislake. Alex Kennard, though, is a man haunted by his past and doubted by others, particularly after a recent incident.
It means that as he tries to solve the case before it's too late, he also has to negotiate some complicated relationships with his colleagues – and figure out whether he can still trust his instincts. It's an intense combination and the excellent characterisation complements the dramatic scenes superbly throughout. Most of the narrative follows the investigation as it happens but there are a few chapters which give us an insight into Tracy's life and what might have led to her death. It becomes evident that she was a complicated person and there are several suspects who had the means and motive to kill her. Kennard has to work with his ambitious partner, DS Georgina Layton as each new revelation puts somebody else in the frame.
As the fire closes in on the town, the nail-biting conclusion to Into the Flames couldn't be more exciting. The searingly vivid descriptions are suffocatingly claustrophobic and as Kennard and Layton head into the flames, I could hardly catch my breath. I thought I'd figured everything out but the twists and turns of the complex plot said otherwise!
Into the Flames is a scorching, heart-pounding thriller and an insightful, empathetic exploration of trauma, guilt, betrayal and redemption. I raced through the pages and highly recommend it.
Into the Flames will be published by Simon & Schuster on 4th July 2024. Purchasing links can be found here.
Follow the blog tour, details are below.
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 this 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, and was followed by the standalone thrillers Vanished (2021) and Into the Flames (2023).
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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