Sandra Ruttan [Craig Nolan 01] - What Burns Within

Child abductions, arson, and rapes. Three series of very different crimes are terrorizing the city. But the evidence suggests that they might all somehow be related.



From Publishers Weekly



Three Vancouver constables—son-of-a-sergeant Craig Nolan, bombshell in the boys' club Ashlyn Hart, and stolidly antisocial cop Tain—are drawn together as the rapes, arsons and child abductions they're working on respectively converge. The three, who have a beef over a prior case gone bad, must get over their personal differences and chase scant leads before another raped woman, burned building or missing girl turns up. Ruttan manages to keep the multiple leads and seconds on the same page admirably: she doesn't drop too many clues in their laps or allow the tension to flag. The child abduction and sex crime aspects of the story are handled without exploitation or kid gloves; the straight proceduralism from Ruttan (Suspicious Circumstances) serves the story well through the rewarding climax. (May)

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From the Author



WHAT BURNS WITHIN follows the investigations of three plainclothes RCMP officers who work the streets in British Columbia's lower mainland.



Constable Ashlyn Hart is working on a string of connected arsons.



Constable Craig Nolan is hunting a rapist.



Constable Tain is dealing with a series of child abductions.



Ashlyn, Tain and Craig have worked together before, a tough case that holds a lot of bad memories. It's been months since they've seen each other, all assuming they'd just remind each other of a time in their lives they'd rather forget.



When the body of one of the missing girls is recovered at one of Ashlyn's arson scenes it's the first hint that there's a connection between the cases, but this is an investigation where things aren't always as they seem and when a police officer becomes the latest victim of the serial rapist all three cases collide, with deadly consequences.