A Slow Fire Burning

Which factors that make Laura a prime suspect are legitimately suspicious and which reveal bias against her? Does Laura make any mistakes or poor choices during the investigation that could have been avoided?

How would you describe Theo and Carla’s relationship? Why did each persistently lie to the other, especially about their interactions with Angela? Has the loss of their son brought them closer together or pulled them apart?

A friendship between Irene and Laura seems improbable, but the two women are extremely close. What do they have in common? How does Irene’s friendship with Laura become a replacement for her previous friendship with Angela?

The backstories of various characters, such as Carla, Laura, and Miriam, are revealed gradually, often in a nonlinear fashion. What is the impact of this narrative choice, and how does it affect character development? Does learning about the histories of the characters in this way make them more or less sympathetic? Support your response with evidence from the text.

How does Hawkins use the novel-within-a-novel trope to provide a metafictional perspective on the crime thriller genre? In what ways does Theo’s novel thematically parallel A Slow Fire Burning and in what ways is it different?

A number of characters in the novel engage in a creative practice: Theo writes fiction, Daniel draws, and Miriam writes a memoir. Why are these practices significant? How does Hawkins use them to comment on the relationship between art and truth?

Choose a Victorian “sensation novel,” such as Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White or Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret, and compare it to A Slow Fire Burning. What themes and genre characteristics do the novels share, and in what ways do they differ?

If Daniel was responsible for Ben’s death, was Carla justified in killing him? Does her claim that she killed him in part because of the pain he caused Angela add any credibility to her defense? How trustworthy do you find the narrative that Daniel depicted in his sketchbook?