Angels Burning by Tawni O'Dell

Angels Burning opens with the discovery of the body of a badly burned 16 year old girl, Camio Truly. It is police chief, Dove Carnahan, who has to step into the hole and actually retrieve the poor girls body.  Dove has lived in the small town for her 50 something years and knows the Truly family.   The Truly family is one of those criminally dysfunctional families, so the idea that one of them might have killed her is a distinct possibility.

As Dove goes about her investigation, we learn about all of the characters in this small Pennsylvania town.  Obviously characterization is the author’s strongpoint, each character was well developed and stayed true to themselves through the whole stories.  I especially loved Camio’s little brother Derek - who even at such a young age is learning the ropes on surviving in the Truly family.

This is a great murder mystery, but it is so much more than that.  The thought and detail that went into the story make it more.  Even the detail that Dove was named after her mother’s favorite soap!  These are the kind of details that to me make a story shine.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.