I spotted ‘Into the Fire’ by G. D. Wright on Bookstagram a number of times and it has a rather attractive cover, so I felt I had to give it a go.
This book starts rather dramatically with our hero (or so we think), Steve, rescuing a baby boy from a house fire. Creating a media frenzy, as you would expect, Steve, the quiet, unassuming family man, is thrown into the spotlight and is the centre of a media circus. This leads to the secrets of Steve’s past coming to light – and the question soon becomes: is Steve a hero or a villain?
Told from multiple perspectives, we see the story unfold, and how it impacts a number of different characters, including the detective (always great to have a strong female detective), who has a connection to the current case and a cold case. This is not so much a whodunnit but a whydunnit: why is Steve both a hero and villain? Why have things about his past stayed hidden for so long? Why does anyone do some of the things that they do – especially the most extreme?
There is also a clear study of multiple relationships – family, friend, perpetrator and victim; professional, police and public. And the idea of trust is considered throughout the book: who do we trust and why do we trust them?
A moment at the very end of the book is a twist I was not expecting, although the author resvisits the clues for you and, actually, other readers may have picked it up, but I did not. I was not sure this twist was needed as it happened but, as I finished the book, I could understand this decision and why it was as it was, and actually what it brought to the story. Even if in the moment it was a little bit of a shock, and felt as though it might be there just for shock factor.
It always seems strange to say that I enjoyed a book with some dark subjects and events, but this was a good read; I would advise that maybe you should check the trigger warnings before you read this, as, for some people, it may be a slightly more difficult read.
I would certainly read more G. D. Wright books, and have already looked up what else has been written – because, as we know, you can never have enough books.