The Burning Girls by Rita Herron

The Burning Girls by Rita Herron

The girl was beautiful, even in death. Her skin was translucent beneath the sliver of moonlight peeking through the bare branches of the surrounding pines, and her chestnut hair had tumbled around her pale shoulders. Around her, smoke twisted in the air, curling into the inky sky.

The remote town of Crooked Creek has barely recovered from its most recent tragedy when wildfires tear through the mountains. Detective Ellie Reeves is grappling with her own heartbreak--she has just discovered she was adopted and that her childhood was a lie.

Under the scorching summer sun, Ellie is called to a river where a body has been found. She spots a lone woman's shoe caught in a nearby tangle of vines, and a pearl necklace scattered by the water's edge. The remains are surrounded by a circle of stones, which Ellie is certain means something. Was the victim--whoever she was--caught in the fire or is something more sinister at play?

The Fourth of July usually means festivals and fireworks, but when another body turns up the town is left in tatters. A young girl with dark hair lies dead, surrounded by stones, smoke drifting in the air. Thanks to an engraved silver necklace, Ellie identifies the body as eighteen-year-old Katie Lee Curtis, and the diary she finds hidden under the teenager's mattress could get her close to the killer.

With two victims in less than twenty-four hours, it's clear Ellie's up against a serial killer, and she vows that no more innocent girls will be sacrificed. For her, every day is a battle to come to terms with her past, but when this case becomes personal, will she win?

A totally gripping and utterly addictive page-turner that will have you racing through and reeling at the twists. Perfect for fans of Melinda Leigh, Lisa Regan and Kendra Elliot, it's best read with the lights on

Wow ... I literally haven't been able to put this book down This has completely gripped me and been utterly impossible to put down. Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rita Herron, a New York Times bestselling author, fell in love with books when she was eight years old, when she read her first Trixie Belden mystery. She left her profession as a kindergarten teacher for a career as a writer twenty years ago, and she now has more than ninety romantic novels to her credit. She particularly enjoys writing dark romantic suspense stories set in little southern communities. RT Book Reviews gave her a Career Achievement Award for her work in Series Romantic Suspense, as well as the National Readers' Choice Award and a RITA nomination. Her Slaughter Creek novels (Last to Tell and Her Dying Breath) and Graveyard Falls novels (All the Dead Girls, All the Lovely Faces, and All the Gorgeous Brides) have garnered glowing reviews. Rita is a proud mother and grandma who hails from Atlanta, Georgia.