WHEN MATCHES BURN Book Review

When Matches Burn by M.E Mullen, eBook, 374 pages

Synopsis from GoodReads: Ten years ago Della Jones fled Belclaire, Louisiana, desperate to outrun the fire that nearly destroyed her. Now she’s back. Her mother has been murdered. Her sister is missing. And the town she tried to forget is ready to make her the villain all over again.

Haunted by guilt and hunted by suspicion, Del is forced to confront the ghosts she left behind, including the man she once loved, now the lead detective on the case. As she digs into her family's secrets, she uncovers something far more sinister than she imagined. Her sister was hiding something. So was her mother. And Belclaire? It’s been burying more than just bodies.

BOOK REVIEW: I turned the page on my Kindle expecting one final chapter and was met with a preview to the author's next book. To say that my jaw was on the floor would be an accurate statement. Before you get the wrong idea, it wasn't a cliff hanger. It wasn't left open for another book. Not everything has to have a sequel but in this case and epilogue would have been appreciated. Holy moly. This book took me on a ride with my emotions. So much so that I didn't really take any notes until about 80+ percent of the way through and it was only because there was a stranger interaction between Del and another character that didn't seem necessary and I had thoughts to get out.

I would be lying if I said that I didn't check Google Maps to see if Belclaire was an actual place in Louisiana. I did not, however, check to see if the hurricane names mentioned were real or not to help me narrow down the potential location of this small town where everyone knows everyone and their business. However something in the beginning didn't sit right with me. Della has been gone for a decade. Not just gone...out of the country kind of gone. She gets the call about her mother and the family friend/cop says that they need her to come back because her sister is missing and she might be able to help put pieces together. Wouldn't he know that Della hasn't been in contact with her family since she left? What kind of information could she provide that could help lead to finding her mother's killer? I mean she needed to for the story's sake but I feel like something in that early part of the story could have been framed better.

It's 5 stars for me. I did bounce around between giving it a 4.5 or even a 4.75 only because there were times that I thought it felt like the story was dragging on but no matter how I flipped it around, it would be rounded up to a 5 star so I'm going with it. Something about Della and the small town felt familiar to me. It bought up memories of my time living in Louisiana. Some that I forgot about and some that I wish would have stayed forgotten. In a way it was a little nostalgic. I guess that's why I was looking to see if it was a real place. It's definitely a bit of a slow burn but not too painfully slow. Definitely check it out and if you have a KU subscriptions, check it out while it is part of the KU library. For a debut novel, this author did a wonderful job story telling and creating characters that you love, hate, and love to hate!

5/5 Stars

2025 Reading Challenge: 54/50 complete