Too much went to nothing. [The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor]

An unconventional vicar must exorcise the dark past of a remote village haunted by death and disappearances in this explosive and unsettling thriller from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man.

A dark history lingers in Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, Protestant martyrs were betrayed—then burned. Thirty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared without a trace. And a few weeks ago, the vicar of the local parish hanged himself in the nave of the church.

Reverend Jack Brooks, a single parent with a fourteen-year-old daughter and a heavy conscience, arrives in the village hoping for a fresh start. Instead, Jack finds a town rife with conspiracies and secrets, and is greeted with a strange welcome package: an exorcism kit and a note that warns, “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known.”

The more Jack and daughter, Flo, explore the town and get to know its strange denizens, the deeper they are drawn into the age-old rifts, mysteries, and suspicions. And when Flo begins to see specters of girls ablaze, it becomes apparent there are ghosts here that refuse to be laid to rest.

Uncovering the truth can be deadly in a village with a bloody past, where everyone has something to hide and no one trusts an outsider.

You'd think by the description of C.J. Tudor's The Burning Girls that you'd be out to read a small village, conspiratorial, possibly supernatural, murder mystery thriller. You'd be somewhat right, but mostly wrong. Nay on the supernatural, but small village conspiracy? Sure. Murder mystery thriller? Sure. In fact, small village conspiracies and murder mysteries. Moreover, where this book went wrong for me was in that plurality.

When a place is "haunted by death" the impression is that something innate is causing or leading to repeat deaths in or at said place. But no, we had a bunch of unsolved murders that barely connected with each other. Or if they did connect, they weren't compelling collectively. We've got a supposed suicide that ends up being whimsically frivolous on the culprits' part, hidden secrets that have no real consequences, and gratuitously useless tension that, while driving the story all over the place, ultimately leads nowhere.

[SPOILERS] Jack is actually Merry, who we learn to be a survivor of sexual assault, and because she killed her abuser she lets her friend's murderer go free? Her brother was a big threat, killing around the town willy-nilly, but he was a good guy? Because he killed her abusive ex-husband? But we let the fact he killed at least three people on the way to find his sister go? No consequences? Don't get me started on Rosie and Wrigley. Because, why? [END OF SPOILERS.]

Early on in the book, because of the compelling threads (or at least their beginnings) of all these murders and mysteries, I wasn't finding anything too offensive and I was thinking I'd call this about a 4 star book. But with the way the reality of the crimes ends up being very casual, very people are sick and evil for no reason, very no one dealt with any or sufficient consequences, I was just very disappointed by the end. Jack and Flo are ridiculous as characters, with both being incredibly naïve given established character histories. Still, when I was in it, I was in it. So I'm going to give this a quote, unquote, 3 star rating, with a background understanding that could have very easily been 2 stars. But I'll say 3 stars for now.

The Burning Girls (ISBN: 9781984825025) was published February 2021.