Bonfire

From actress, producer, and writer, Krysten Ritter, a gripping, tightly-wound suspense novel about a woman forced to confront her past in the wake of small-town corruption.

Nothing burns as bright as the truth.

It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all evidence of her small town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands.

But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town's economic heart, she begins to find strange connections to a decade-old scandal involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her friends—just before Kaycee disappeared for good.

But as Abby tries desperately to find out what happened to Kaycee, troubling memories begin to resurface and she begins to doubt her own observations. And when she unearths an even more disturbing secret, her search threatens the reputations, and lives, of the community and risks exposing a darkness that may consume her.

With tantalizing twists, slow-burning suspense, and a remote, rural town of five claustrophobic miles, Bonfire is a dark exploration of what happens when your past and present collide.

Review by Sarah McDuling

I really can’t get enough of mystery thrillers featuring a protagonist with personal demons, returning to their hometown to investigate a crime and in the process confronting the ghosts of the past and uncovering long buried secrets. This is a setup that really works for me. I loved it in Jane Harper’s The Dry and I love it here with Krysten Ritter’s gripping debut, Bonfire.

For those who may be unfamiliar with Krysten Ritter, she is one of my favorite actors. She played Gia Goodman in Veronica Mars (a must-see show for fans of noir detective stories and wise-cracking female investigators). She also starred in the short-lived but super hilarious sitcom Don’t Trust the B___ in Apartment 23 and is probably best known for playing the lead role in Jessica Jones – a badass private investigator with super strength, a troubled past and some major anger management issues.

It’s always a gamble when an actor or musician writes a book. You can never be sure what to expect. Usually expectations start out low, but I’m such a big fan of Krysten Ritter’s work as an actress that I picked up Bonfire with pretty high expectations. And I’m pleased to say, those expectations were more than fulfilled!

Bonfire is a captivating read from start to finish. Main character Abby Williams is an environmental lawyer who must return to her small Indiana hometown to investigate Optimal Plastics – a large corporation that forms the economic backbone of the town.

Abby left home 10 years ago and has never looked back. A victim of bullying, she does not retain fond memories of her childhood and is reluctant to return to the town where she grew up. As it turns out, her investigation into Optimal Plastics is connected to the unsolved disappearance of Kaycee Mitchell – the “mean girl” who made Abby’s life so difficult in high school. Becoming more and more obsessed with uncovering the truth of what happened 10 years ago, Abby is forced to face the trauma of her past with dramatic consequences.

Bonfire is an impressive debut and an enthralling read. The characters are well-drawn and compelling, the atmosphere is fraught with tension, and the plot unfolds in a carefully measured pace that kept me thoroughly engaged from the first page. Really, I don’t think it’s fair for a person to be a talented actor and then turn around and write such an addictive book! I’m not complaining though, and I look forward to reading more from Krysten Ritter in the future.

About the Author

Krysten Ritter is well known for her starring roles in the award winning Netflix original series, Jessica Jones, and cult favourite, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, as well as her pivotal role on AMC’s Breaking Bad. Ritter’s work on film includes Big Eyes, Listen Up Philip, Life Happens, Confessions of a Shopaholic and She’s Out of My League. She is the founder of Silent Machine, a production company that aims to highlight complex female protagonists. Ritter and her dog Mikey split their time between New York and Los Angeles.