Book Review – Into The Fire

by Manda Scott (Bantam Press) ISBN: 9780593072486

Manda Scott attempts to link a modern-day mystery to an age-old tale of tragic heroism. Captain Ines Picaut delves into an investigation of several arson attacks in Orleans, but finds herself tangled up in secrets that rival the threat behind the flames. Her story is paralleled with that of Joan of Arc as she leads her troops into combat against the English in 1429.

Instead of the journey of intrigue that hundreds of rave reviews promised, I suffered through pages and pages of poor plotting and dull descriptions. If Jeanette’s story had stood on its own, the novel would have improved tenfold. Those chapters written in Ines’s viewpoint would be out of place even in a Hollywood drama, with their inclusion of a demonic soon-to-be-ex-husband, his insane family, and an unprofessional office romance that sprung out of nowhere and simply added gasoline to an already burning plotline.

Scott would have been better off snipping the hair-thin string that held the two stories together, as this would have saved her from tripping over it every time she wandered towards a climax.

I expected far more from such an acclaimed author.

Amy Bouwer
1/5
Posted on: 30th January 2016
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