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The Burnt House
Author: Faye Kellerman
Publisher: Harper Collins
Price: Rs 295

What one would really like about Faye Kellerman’s The Burnt House is probably the fact that the thriller fiction has all the elements — mystery, suspense, energy and human drama — in place.

The Burnt House revolves around an air crash, which not only kills many but also buries a mystery revolving around a 28-year-old flight attendant. Peter Decker, a detective, and his wife, Rina, are certainly shaken after they learn that the crash took place near their daughter’s school.

Fortunately, their daughter, Hannah, and her schoolmates escape unscathed. The case would have ended there for Decker, had it not been for a phone call from a young woman’s irate stepfather regarding a suspected homicide.

Apparently, Roseanne Dresden, a flight attendant, who was not on duty, took the ill-fated West Air 1324 flight that crashed, but her body is yet to be recovered. Her stepfather assumes that her abusive, ill-treating and frivolous husband Ivan has a role to play.

When Decker finds a charred body, the detective assumes that the alleged homicide case is closed. But he soon discovers that the case has only begun. The forensic experts can’t match the charred body with Roseanne’s dental record.

The investigative team, set up by Decker, gets frustrated as they get little help from the West Air staff. When the team follows a trail of events, what eventually uncovers is a lineage of tragic history, dangerous secrets and deadly lies. And all this leads him to the corpse of three-decades missing murder victim.
The story doesn’t really end there as when the detective and his team get the jigsaw in place, they find something that they would rather have not known. A gory portrait comes to the fore that challenges Decker and Rina’s own belief about guilt, innocence and justice.

What one can’t help but notice is how Kellerman keeps the thrill on. Like it is mentioned in one of the chapters, the case may wax and wean at frequent intervals, but it never settles.

Similarly with the novel, a few pages may seem a little mundane at times, others action-packed, but it never makes you put the novel down.

And this is what really gives the novel the edge — Kellerman’s simple yet mesmerising style. As for the end, I would recommend you to read it to find out.
Email Author: malini.menon@hindustantimes.com