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The Burn Palace
The Burn Palace
Aug 18, 2025 4:18 PM

Author:Stephen Dobyns

The Burn Palace

The Burn Palace from Stephen Dobyns is a darkly funny, twisted portrait of chaos and paranoia in small town America.

The sleepy community of Brewster, Rhode Island, is just like any other small American town. It's a place where most of the population will likely die blocks from where they were born; where gossip spreads like wildfire, and the big entertainment on weekends is the inevitable fight at the local bar.

But recently, something out of the ordinary - perhaps even supernatural - has been stirring in Brewster. While packs of coyotes gather on back roads and the news spreads that a baby has been stolen from Memorial Hospital (and replaced in its bassinet by a snake), a series of inexplicably violent acts begins to confound Detective Woody Potter and the local police - and inspire terror in the hearts and minds of the locals.

Chillingly suspenseful, with a whole host of richly rendered and larger-than-life characters, The Burn Palace from Stephen Dobyns is a masterful thriller, which fans of Stephen King and Susan Hill will devour with pleasure.

Praise for The Burn Palace:

'I've read some very good novels this year, but this one is the best of the best' Stephen King

Stephen J. Dobyns (born February 19, 1941) is an American poet and novelist born in Orange, New Jersey, and residing in Westerly, RI.

Reviews

A great storyteller . . . It is a tense and gripping read, beautifully imagined'

—— The Times

Sensitive but provocative . . . confirms Robertson as one of Scotland's great contemporary storytellers

—— Herald

Powered by action and mystery, and profoundly invested in the emotional lives of its characters

—— Scotsman

Robertson again proves himself to be one of Scotland's best writers and one of the best writers in the world at exploring the traumas, upheavals, and political currents that form modern Scotland

—— The Skinny

Superb. A mystery thriller, a haunting evocation of grief

—— Daily Mail

Impressive, brilliant, terrific

—— Sunday Telegraph

Succinct and pacy storytelling stretched taut across a morass of unresolved tensions and motives for murder that don’t necessarily fit the prevailing post-peace process narrative. Lennon could well serve as a poster boy for conflict resolution, a deeply flawed man who has in the past been his own worst enemy and is now battered and scarred, physically and emotionally, as he pursues truth and justice by any means necessary

—— Irish Times

This is crime fiction right out of the top drawer. The dialogue throughout the book snaps and jitters with electricity, and as the climax unfolds nothing will be able to make you put the book down. The elements of pity, humanity and compassion are never far under the swirling surface action of this novel, and it will certainly be put on my ‘best of 2014' shelf

—— Crimefictionlover

Neville is back with a bang… Just as captivating as the previous novels… I loved everything about the book

—— Ulster Tatler

Neville, who was heaped with praise for his first book, has managed to keep the good stuff coming, and his new novel shows no sign of a dip in performance

—— Sunday Business Post

With a sure grasp of the mechanics of suspense, Neville’s real coup is his multifaceted and conflicted protagonists

—— Good Book Guide

Essential Scandi-fiction

—— Sunday Express

The novel is gripping. Erlendur is arguably Nordic fiction’s unhappiest and loneliest but most intriguing detective… It’s a sad disturbing book, chilling both in its setting and in the depths of human angst is explores

—— Marcel Berlins , The Times

Be warned: if you’ve ever spent time with this marvelous Scandi crime character, you’ll be hard pressed to hold back a tear

—— Siobhan Murphy , Metro

This final chapter in the Erlendur series stalks the human heart unremittingly

—— Kerry Fowler , Sainsbury's Magazine

Another riveting thriller. Tackling difficult subjects with intelligence and humanity

—— Hello Magazine

A compelling summer read not to be missed

—— OK Magazine

This addictive new thriller from bestselling author Liane Moriarty weaves three stories together to a shocking and unpredictable climax

—— Take A Break Magazine

It's a hell of a good book. Funny and scary. She nails the feuding moms.

—— Stephen King

Not only an enthralling murder investigation... but a plot that is strengthened and illuminated by two of the best characters I have read for some time- reporter Sully Carter and his cohort, the streetwise gangster Sly Hastings... their exchanges are pure gold.

—— Raven Crime Reads

This is a terrific first novel by a man with a long career in journalism. The tale builds to a dramatic conclusion, with a final unexpected and terrible twist in the tail.

—— Crime Review
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