relzreviewz.com A Slow Burn by Mary DeMuth ~ Tracy’s Take

A Slow Burn by Mary DeMuth ~ Tracy’s Take

Publisher’s Synopsis:

She touched Daisy’s shoulder. So cold. So hard. So unlike Daisy.

Yet so much like herself it made Emory shudder.

Burying her grief, Emory Chance is determined to find her daughter Daisy’s murderer—a man she saw in a flicker of a vision. But when the investigation hits every dead end, her despair escalates. As questions surrounding Daisy’s death continue to mount, Emory’s safety is shattered by the pursuit of a stranger, and she can’t shake the sickening fear that her own choices contributed to Daisy’s disappearance. Will she ever experience the peace her heart longs for?

What I thought:

Mary DeMuth’s second book in the Defiance Texas Trilogy continues to prove her an author of grit and substance with a literary style that intuitively provides beauty right when it is most needed. ‘A Slow Burn’ is as profound, haunting and poignant as ‘Daisy Chain’ and yet amplifies those qualities with artistry and finesse.

‘A Slow Burn’ changes focus from Daisy’s friend, Jed Pepper, to Daisy’s mother, Emory Chance. Emory, who seems caught in the spiral of her own poor choices, pierced my heart with a deep ache for the grief she seems unable to bear. Emory’s loss, her drug addicted ways and a lifetime of poor choices makes her already wounded soul all the more tortured. While it would be easy to be frustrated with her repetition of the same mistakes, I felt more inclined to join Hixon and Ousie in loving her into a better place.

While Emory seems to sink into despair, Mary DeMuth weaves beauty into the darkness of this woman’s life through the unconditional love of the people around her. People who have every reason to walk away and yet persist with what can only be an example of the way God pursues, forgives and loves each one of us. All around her Emory sees glimpses of the tiniest rays of hope and yet cannot dare to believe she is worthy of anything good.

‘A Slow Burn’ is a heartbreaking story that made me cry anguished tears for Emory’s pain. It is not a story that is neatly tied up with the bow of happy endings, and yet there is the promise that healing and restoration might just be possible. I am eagerly awaiting the final installment of this trilogy to have all my burning questions about Daisy’s killer and Emory’s future answered!