52 Books in 52 Weeks - Week 7: Burn by Ted Dekker and Erin Healy

She was soaking wet, crawling on her hands and knees through mud, half of her in water rushed over her calves. The muddy ground numbed the heels of her hands. She lifted one palm to examine the strange fact that she couldn't feel it. Something about her skin was not right...

Mr. Dekker is a master of suspense. His latest release, Burn, was co-authored with Erin Healy. As a result, the suspense is diluted with unusually long narrative passages (the quote above does not appear until the end of chapter twenty - it would have been a great way to open the book). There is also a lack of plot development in some areas - it is difficult to imagine why the events unfold as they do with so little attention paid to relating the motives of key characters Salazar Sanso and Jason Mikkado. The cursory manner in which the motive was treated made me wonder if the action and suspense scenes were imagined before the plot developed. Nearly half of the book is set up for the main event, but very little attention is paid to reconciling the plot at the end. Perhaps a sequel is in the works to help us discover how the main characters move forward with their lives? This book is a decent read, but it not up to Mr. Dekker's usual works. If you one of his first time readers, I highly recommend that you start with one of his other works, perhaps the Circle Trilogy (start with Black) or Showdown.