The Half Burnt House, Alex North, Penguin Random House, ISBN: 9780241438138

This book is not for the faint of heart – not due to its thriller-horror elements but because it demands a significant mental load to keep track of the narrative and timelines.

The Half Burnt House follows Katie Shaw, a 30-something wife and mother, who has been carrying the guilt of her younger brother’s vicious attack for years. Following the incident, her brother, Chris, has spiralled into a life of drugs and crime, leading to their estrangement. The trauma has left Katie somewhat paranoid, much to her husband’s frustration.

Katie is reluctantly drawn back into her brother’s orbit when her mother shares that he’s apparently turned his life around, only to have gone missing. A call from Detective Laurence Page, however, suggests otherwise, revealing Chris may have stolen a book written by a local serial killer from the half-burnt home of an elderly man. Police also suspect that the old man, Alan Hobbs, had been expecting his own murder.

As suspicious events start unfolding around Katie and her family, she decides to track down her estranged brother. Little does she know that the police aren’t the only ones seeking Chris – a violent man with an unsettling interest in the stolen book is also on his trail, determined to get to him first.

While I found the pacing a bit slow – although Alex North doesn’t linger with unnecessary descriptions – there’s a fair amount of background context, but he usually cuts to the chase. However, as mentioned, keeping up with the timelines and the overall narrative was challenging and required close focus.

There’s an attempt to delve into themes of determinism and predestination though it didn’t feel fully fleshed out. I found the characters a bit lackluster, and though the storyline was intriguing, it didn’t completely captivate me. – Mariclair Smit 2/5 stars

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