#BlogTour-‘A Killing Fire’ by Faye Snowden

About the book…

As a child forced to witness her father’s crimes, homicide Detective Raven Burns dedicates every waking moment to proving that she is not her father’s child.

But when she shoots a suspect who has what turns out to be an unloaded weapon, Raven finds that she must confront both the demons of her past and the stains on her soul in order to stop a killer.

Published on 08/08/2019 in paperback and ebook formats, ‘A Killing Fire’ by Faye Snowden is published by FlameTree Press. My thanks to the team for providing me with my gifted review copy for the Anne Cater organised Random Things Tours

I wanted to avoid the obvious puns, but it cannot be helped, this book is lit.

From the very beginning you have a firm sense of the book’s location, in the heart of Zydeco country, Faye establishes this as though the state is a character in the book and reflects the slow burn pace of the novel.Its beating heart is detective Raven Burns, her name both an action and a warning-she burns at injustice and has a seething fire inside her, so her very existence seeks to put right the wrongs of her father, a serial killer. Raven Burns. She feels that as a child she should have done something to stop him, she feels that a child could have been vrave enough, after all she saw his true nature at a very young age.

But as the book progresses, and she hunts a serial killer who leaves behind her father’s calling card, she has to process what she has been through, her understanding of evil as a professional and as a survivor whilst learnign to forgive herself and solve the crime.

Raven is a startlingly original character in an overloaded genre, she absolutely stands out as someone different, driven and accomplished. She is a strong, female character whose tempestuousness is levened by her partner, Billy Ray, without being subjugated by it.

‘A Killing Fire’ may ostensibly appear to be a murder mystery, but it is so much more than that. It is a quest to find herself, reconcile herself with a past she cannot bear to think abaout and redemption. No matter how hard you try, you cannot escape your past and the things that made you, but you can rise above it through your actions and deeds. I enjoyed the way that Faye plays with the reader to get them thinking that maybe there is a side to Raven that even she doesn’t not know about, could madness and murder be inherited?

I genuinely hope that this is the first in a series featuring Raven and Byrd’s Landing, it is highly recommended for readers who enjoy James Lee Burke and Sara Paretsky.

About the author..

Faye Snowden is the author of three published mysteries with Kensington— Spiral of Guilt (1999), The Savior (2003, 2004) and Fatal Justice (2005, 2006). She has published short stories and poems in various literary journals and small presses including The African American Review, Calliope, Red Ochre Lit, Bay Area Poets Coalition and Occam’s Razor. A new book, A Killing Fire (Flame Tree Press) made its debut in August, 2019.

Although born in San Fernando, California, she was uprooted while young to a place where supposedly people had swamps in their backyards and alligators for pets. She didn’t have any pet alligators in Shreveport, Louisiana, but an amazing, resourceful single mother raised the family of six in a shotgun house. And she had a cat named Blue.

At eighteen, Faye left Louisiana to join the Navy. The Navy gave her an opportunity to spend some time living in Naples, Italy and on both US coasts—Washington, DC and northern California. After the Navy, she went to work as an information technology professional in various industries while on her way to a masters in English literature.

Aside from her publications, she also managed two boys, a husband, five dogs and three writing fellowships following those years. Today, Faye works and writes from her home in Northern California.

Links-http://www.fayesnowden.com/

https://www.flametreepress.com/

Twitter @faye_snowden

 @flametreepress

       @annecater