REVIEW: Burning Meredith

Burning Meredith
Author: Elizabeth Gunn

The fire starts on Labor Day. Live embers left by Careless campers catch the wind and burn brush and trees. Soon all of Meredith Mountain is ablaze. Below the mountain in Clark's Fort, a rookie newspaper employee gets a lucky break. Stuart Campbell is sent to cover the fire. He spends days on the mountain with the fire crews sending back photos and notes on the emergency. His Aunt Alice edits his notes into stories. The local weekly paper, the Guardian, runs with the story, gathering national accolades for its coverage of the huge forest fire. When the last of the fire is out and the mountain is just smoking, firemen make a gruesome discovery - an expensive athletic shoe hanging halfway up a tree. Below it under some burned logs, a charred body. When the autopsy report points to murder, Alice and Stuart find themselves investigating a mystery. Who is the dead man? And who killed him?

At 182 pages, this book is a quick read, but a really enjoyable suspense story! I spent 10 years as a small town reporter, so I totally identified with the two main characters. It's hard to keep up with front page news when you are also selling ads, editing copy, taking the photos, and getting the paper printed on time. Alice is feisty, standing up to her boss, interviewing people for info on the murder and editing the stories for the Guardian. I really like her character. Stuart is tenacious and has that new reporter wild excitement to him....he loves taking photos and covering the fire and murder case. His Aunt is his strong support, editing his notes into strong stories and helping him with interviews and ideas. Great characters! This story definitely kept my attention from beginning to end. It moved at a perfect pace with plenty of interesting clues and investigation.

This is the first book by Elizabeth Gunn that I've read. I enjoyed this story so much that I will definitely be reading more of her books!

**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Severn House via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**