Review: BURN PATTERNS by Ron Elliott

In BURN PATTERNS, author Ron Elliott has Australia's answer to popular international female crime fiction protagonists such as Kay Scarpetta, Tempe Brennan, and Sara Linton to name a few in Iris Foster aka The Fire Lady - a therapist in a city psychology practice who aides the police and fire service profiling arsonists. 

BURN PATTERNS pits Iris against a serial arsonist determined to ruin lives of the vulnerable by targeting schools, zoos and churches all filled to capacity. It's a classic race against time crime thriller that blinds the reader in a smokey haze of misdirection as things aren't what they seem. I found myself questioning Iris' mental health and motives on a couple of occasions based on her risky take charge manner and equally haphazard judgement calls - all for the betterment of the story. 

"There were always people who visited their damage on others. If the damage involved fire, Iris would keep trying to put them out." 

Iris is the kind of flawed character I like to read about and is perfect for this kind of semi procedural crime. I hope to see her in many installments to come.

BURN PATTERNS comes out in June 2016 and is published by Fremantle Press.