Feature book: Burning Lies

Burning Lies by Helene Young

He has assumed another’s identity and he wants her and wants to protect her—until she betrays him. By day he is mild mannered and respected, his other persona is destructive and wants revenge for what he believes happened to him. The destructive side comes more and more to the front until no one is safe even the woman he wants.

Ryan O’Donnell, or Bradley Ryan, as he is known now arrives in north Queensland. Ryan is undercover for the Australian Federal Police. He needs to leave Sydney as the Nemesis motorcycle bikie club is after him, so he is always alert to his environment. He lives in a house that he has inherited from his uncle. He discovers more about his uncle when he finds his diaries. It is through this that Ryan is also able to find himself, as spending all those years undercover has made him question himself and the motives of those around him.

Kaitlyn Scott now works in Border Protection in north Queensland. Five years earlier she watched her house burn to the ground from a bushfire and inside were her father and husband. She moved to north Queensland to escape the memories. She then finds that she is in the middle of a hunt for another arsonist, little realising that this arsonist is familiar to her. Kait is quite smart and she realises that Ryan is not telling her the truth about himself and she does come to the correct conclusion. At the same time she is protecting her mother and son from further trauma.

This story has some different threads that eventually come together. What I liked was that there were so many different characters that it took me a bit of time to determine who the arsonist was and why they were doing what they were doing. There were a couple of red herrings but this only added to the suspense.

The coupling of Kait and Ryan was good. I liked that they put their fears and concerns in the open so the other knew where each stood. They were also like real life people. They had stressful jobs and weighed up their options on being together like people do in the real world. They weighed the options and decided that together they could overcome those things to be together.

I found Burning Lies to be a real page turner and really enjoyed this story.

reviewed by Heather

A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.

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