What We'll Burn Last

By: Heather Chavez

Narrated by: Megan Tusing

From the acclaimed author of Before She Finds Me comes a sharp and surprising thriller about two entangled families in a California neighborhood who must race to find answers about a missing teenage girl as a wildfire crackles to life nearby . . .

Three women.

When she was twelve, Leyna Clarke watched her older sister, Grace, walk away from their Sierra Nevada foothills home with her boyfriend, Adam Duran. Neither was ever seen again. Sixteen years later, a stranger who looks like Grace shows up at the restaurant where Leyna works—and vanishes soon after. When it comes out that Leyna was one of the last people to have talked with the young woman, Leyna’s childhood crush Dominic, who is also Adam’s brother, pleads with her to do the last thing she wants to do: come home.

Three secrets.

But Leyna isn’t the only one who hasn’t been able to leave that fateful night behind. Her mother, Meredith, still lives in the family’s old home—even if she claims to believe the police’s theory that Grace and Adam were willing runaways. Down the street, Adam and Dominic’s mother Olivia has also stayed, determined to be there when her son finally returns. . . and to prove that Meredith and Leyna have been hiding something all these years. But the past isn’t the only threat to the two families, or the missing girl. As a wildfire sparks, tempers flare and intentions turn deadly. Because someone in the neighborhood knows what really happened that night—and just how good the forest is at keeping its secrets.

Who will you trust?

©2024 Heather Chavez (P)2024 Mulholland Books

Critic reviews

“Gripping from the very first page, with simmering tension that builds until it catches fire, What We’ll Burn Last is a beautifully written, cinematic thriller . . . a top-notch heart-pounder guaranteed to make you lose sleep. I loved it!”—Ashley Winstead, author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and Midnight is the Darkest Hour

"Crackling with tension and dark secrets, What We'll Burn Last is a complex and startling mystery with beautifully drawn characters, excellent writing, and sharp insights on family and loyalty.”—Robyn Harding, author of The Drowning Woman

good story

Wanted a change and this was perfect fir that. I thought the characters were written great! The story was easy to follow and kept my interest. The ending tied things up nicely, maybe not so believable though.

unbelievable

The motives of all of the characters, with the exception of one, are unbelievable and, in some cases contradictory. The "resolution" of the story is also unbelievable and not very satisfying.