The Burning Girls

A Novel

By: C. J. Tudor

Narrated by: Gemma Whelan, Richard Armitage

An unconventional vicar must exorcise the dark past of a remote village haunted by death and disappearances in this explosive and unsettling thriller from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man.

Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Public Library and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Hypnotic and horrifying.... Without doubt Tudor’s best yet, The Burning Girls left me sleeping with the lights on.” (Chris Whitaker, New York Times best-selling author of We Begin at the End)

A dark history lingers in Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, local Protestant martyrs were betrayed - then burned. Thirty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared without a trace. And a few weeks ago, the vicar of the local parish hanged himself in the nave of the church.

Reverend Jack Brooks, a single parent with a fourteen-year-old daughter and a heavy conscience, arrives in the village hoping for a fresh start. Instead, Jack finds a town rife with conspiracies and secrets, and is greeted with a strange welcome package: an exorcism kit and a note that warns, “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known.”

The more Jack and daughter, Flo, explore the town and get to know its strange denizens, the deeper they are drawn into the age-old rifts, mysteries, and suspicions. And when Flo begins to see specters of girls ablaze, it becomes apparent there are ghosts here that refuse to be laid to rest.

Uncovering the truth can be deadly in a village with a bloody past, where everyone has something to hide and no one trusts an outsider.

©2021 C. J. Tudor (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Fans of Gillian Flynn, Tana French, and Jess Lourey will leap at the chance to read [C. J. Tudor’s] new psychological thriller.... Gruesome and haunting, The Burning Girls is worth every page turn.” (Booklist, starred review)

“The kind of novel that’s so creepy, it might just seep into your dreams.” (PopSugar)

“Tudor’s uncanny twisty plot is populated with intriguing, damaged characters and the slow-burning suspense leads to a crackling ending.” (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

The Burning Girls

Good mystery if a bit graphic in a few places. Also had a lot going on plot wise so you have three story threads that switch between past and present so there is a lot of balls in the air. But it all makes sense at the end.

Great Book!

This was a who done it right until the end.

This story is full of secrets and has lots of action.

The characters are so well developed you will think you know them.

Gemma Whelan and Richard Armitage brought this to life!

Too many priests

For as many vicars that were in the story, it was more holey than holy. It was hard to track, partially because of the wide array of characters (many of them vicars who were referred to as either “vicar”, their first name and/or their last name) and partially because it was an erratic story with plot holes the size of a destroyed church floor.

Horror at its best!

The author maintains mystery, suspense and unpredictable turns right to the end. Her descriptions of horror are unapologetic. Masterful.

Solid

Worth a credit.

There are various storylines here that weave together pretty well, though it took me a while with one of them to feel that it wasn’t a distraction from the main event.

This is much less about supernatural phenomena than it is about human evil. There are some valid questions being asked here about morality, about human nature and about forgiveness and redemption. It’s nice that a book like this gives some thought to thematic questions. Gives it a little more weight than just a typical scary story, though I would not classify the exploration of these questions as profound.

Writing is good. I did think that this level of repeated misfortune amongst this cast of characters was harder to believe than ghosts on fire, but perhaps it’s a comment on how traumas tend to perpetuate themselves again and again until they are healed. Or perhaps I’m reaching and you just need a lot of scary stuff to happen in order to make a scary tale :-)

All in all, I was happy with this as my Halloween season read. I think it would make a great film, lots of creepy imagery here.

Page Turner!

I have not been this captivated by a book in a very long time. It has some good twists and turns. Some predictable, others not so much. Well written.

Excellent

Twisty and captivating right until the end of the epilogue. What a great book! I love the characters and the narration. Super spooky!

slow to start, but good overall

I found the novel hard to get into, initially. But overall, I thought it was well written. good story with a great twist at the end.

Excellent suspense/thriller!

Builds up, not gorey or explicit in terms of content. Extremely well-written. Had me locked in from start to finish.

Intriguing and suspenseful

This was a great read with several plot twists that I did not see coming! It definitely held my attention throughout!