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Sheriff Sam Sinrod is baffled. In the space of about a week, several people burn up for no apparent reason. One’s the town crazy, who burns a hole in Dub’s Place Cocktail Lounge. One’s married to the town harridan, and he starts a brush fire when he combusts while rabbit hunting. One is the banjo player for the carnival in town. A set of identical twins combusts, ten minutes and several miles apart. Dr Whitlock, town coroner, is stumped as well. Silver City, New Mexico is not exactly a booming metropolis. All the men who are physically able are off fighting World War II, which leaves a motley collection of old folks and losers. The women . . . well, none of them are really great specimens either. The crazy man’s wife is lovely but lonely, and can’t wait to leave town after her husband dies. The town harridan pulls political strings to get her husband’s death looked into, as if Sheriff Sinrod has any intention of sweeping it under the rug. The hootchie dancer for the carnival is stacked, and stupid enough to believe that the owner will marry her someday, so in the meantime he’s not paying her. The waitresses at the local bars are all well-built, but not necessarily intelligent or law-abiding. Do you see a pattern here? SEASON OF THE BURNING SOULS is a mediocre mystery. The plot can’t be solved by the reader, no matter how astute, because the information needed isn’t provided. Some of the characters are interesting, but they aren’t the focus of the book and couldn’t sustain it if they were. Some of the names are just too precious for words. The setting is lovely, but mostly we get to hear about the heat and the drought. A lot. The hook was good – spontaneous combustion – but the follow-up wasn’t there. If you really want to spend $26 on a book, I wouldn’t suggest this as the one.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, October 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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