Once again, started out good...then dragged along...I'm reading this out of desperation because I've loaned my Nook to my BFF so she can read the Shades of Grey books....I do have to say that the plot was an interesting one; just not a big fan of how she writes. Time to go back to the library LOL ( )

The Burnt House is a story that is believable. It illustrates the hard work and research of the police to be able to solve a crime with basically no clues. The Burnt House received four stars in this very short review and is recommended for a good story.. ( )

Ein Alptraum wird wahr für Pete Decker vom LAPD und seine Kollegen: der Absturz eines Passagierflugzeugs mitten in Los Angeles. Und als wäre das ausgebrochene Chaos nicht schon groß genug, meldet sich kurz darauf ein Ehepaar bei Decker und behauptet, die Liste der Opfer sei manipuliert worden. Ihre Tochter Roseanne Dresden, die als Stewardess an Bord des Todesfluges gewesen sein soll, sei in Wahrheit vor dem Flug von ihrem Ehemann ermordet worden. Tatsächlich gibt es seit dem Unglück keine Spur mehr von der jungen Frau. Als dann aber statt Roseannes Leichnam eine andere Tote auf dem Absturzgelände gefunden wird, muss Decker zusammen mit Marge Dunn und Scott Oliver zwei mysteriöse Fälle lösen – ohne einen einzigen konkreten Beweis. (Klappentext)

I actually think this book is more like a 3.5, but I give it a 4 because of good writing. The good writing, not the plot, is what kept me engaged.

A small commuter plane crashes into an apartment building. Everyone aboard is killed. As authorities comb the wreckage to recover bodies, the body of a flight attendant comes up missing. Peter Decker is on the case, investigating the missing flight attendant. Then authorities find a body that has nothing to do with the crash and that looks like it had been under the apartment building for decades.

As Decker investigates both of these cases, his team is sent back and forth from Los Angeles to San Jose to New Mexico as they slowly gather enough details to solve both mysteries.

The story was good but not so engaging that I couldn't put the book down. Faye Kellerman is an excellent writer, and her writing is what elevated this novel despite the lack of character depth. It's possible that the character depth was lacking because it had already been dealt with in previous Decker/Lazarus novels, but it seemed noticeably shallow in this book.

Regardless, I did enjoy this book, just not as much as I usually enjoy Kellerman's books. ( )

Solid police procedural as Decker and his team work to identify a body found in an apartment building destroyed in a cataclysmic plane crash. Some confusion between the corpse and a missing flight attendant needs to get sorted out with the realization that they are investigating two murders. The cast of supporting characters stays interesting with the focus this time on the police rather than the family. ( )