WHILE WE WERE BURNING

SARA KOFFI

While We Were Burning, by first-time writer Sara Koffi delivers everything that even the most discriminating reader could dream of. Wife Elizabeth is wracked with self-hate and loathes her husband. And to no avail; her affair is equally disastrous and deadening. Elizabeth's situation deteriorates when she discovers the corpse of her friend Patricia. David, Elizabeth's concerned husband, hires an assistant for his wife, partly to help improve his wife's increasingly deteriorating mental state, as Elizabeth is convinced that Patricia was murdered. Unfortunately, the new assistant has her agenda: hunting for the neighbor who called the police, which resulted in her son's death.

While We Were Burning is unpredictable and engaging. It keeps the reader's attention while examining important societal issues, such as racism, mental health, and the need for revenge. Readers will want more from Sara Koffi, a promising and hopefully prolific mystery writer.