I just finished What Fire Brings by Rachel Howzell Hall. I was a huge fan of We Lie Here and was excited to get an advanced copy of this, her latest thriller. Glancing at other early reviews, I see a handful of people saying they got about a third of the way into it but didn’t finish. That’s a bummer cause if they had just held out a little bit longer, they’d have been hooked. This book is the definition of a slow burn. It hits that halfway point and just catches fire… You see the pun I’m making here? — But seriously, I think the slow burn was totally intentional. 

Written in the first person, the story follows Bailey Meadows, an undercover private investigator masquerading as an aspiring author. Bailey is searching for Sam, a friend of hers who went missing in Topanga Canyon outside of Los Angeles. Fabricating herself a convincing backstory – and with the help of some mysterious allies – Bailey lands a fellowship with Jack Beckham, a highly successful mystery author who wants her to join him at his remote canyon estate to co-write his next best-seller.

So this location is super important: Topanga Canyon is nestled deep in the Santa Monica Mountains, which—thanks to climate change and all that—are primed for a catastrophic wildfire—hint hint. 

This book juggles many cool things, and I applaud Hall for making it work. You have the mystery, which, as it unravels, just gets bigger and bigger and more out of control—like a wildfire. WINK WINK. But you also have the whole aspiring author, book-writing thing, which gets wonderfully meta. And then there’s the actual wildfire threat, which is… terrifying. 

To sum up, Rachel Howzell Hall’s books are fast-paced and fun to read, and What Fire Brings is no different. You can purchase the book here, and you can find Rachel Howzell Hall here. Thanks for reading!