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Book Review - The Burning of Her Sin

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The Burning of Her Sin
by Patty G. Henderson
Barclay Books, LLC, March 2002
234 pages, $14.95
ISBN 1-931402-26-4
Brenda Strange series #1

Brenda Strange at the age of 32 has it all. She has the looks of Princess Diana. She has money. She lives in Newark with Tina, the love of her life for the past five years. On this January day, she learns that she has just been promoted to junior partner at the law firm. Then her world explodes into gunfire from the ex-husband of one of the firm's divorce clients. He goes on a shooting spree in the law offices and Brenda dies. But unlike the other victims, Brenda comes back to life on the operating table. And so starts Brenda's convalescence.

Her near-death experience leaves her jobless with healthy-sized lifetime compensation from the now defunct law firm and the need to find a new career, possibly as a private investigator. It also leaves her with a new hobby--making miniature teddy bears--and an intense desire to leave Newark and find the perfect summer home in Florida.

Brenda finds her perfect house, Malfour House, in Palmetto Beach. The house, a large sprawling Victorian built in the late 1800's, was originally owned by a cigar factory owner. The only thing out of place is the strong scent of burning wood that only Brenda seems to notice. The owner, 92 year-old Peter Cuenca, has refused to sell it to potential purchasers thus far but he agrees to sell it to Brenda. Brenda and Tina rent an apartment and Brenda begins the restoration of Malfour House while Tina goes back to Newark to finish teaching her students in the spring term.

As the restoration completion date of July 1st approaches, Brenda feels the pull of Malfour House. She hears voices no one else hears, smells wood burning that no one else smells, and finds a box full of love letters in the attic with the lover's name cut out. Tina's arrival and their official move into Malfour House distract Brenda until an anonymous intruder invades Malfour House and threatens Brenda and Tina.

Brenda begins her career as a private investigator: investigating the history of Malfour House and its original owner, as well as her own growing psychic abilities. At the same time, Brenda also tries desperately to repair the widening distance in her relationship with Tina that Malfour House itself seems to have caused.

The book itself is a decent read and I look forward to seeing Malfour House, Brenda, and Tina develop in subsequent books. However, both the past and present mysteries presented in the story are rather predictable. A touch of the supernatural and Santeria make the story, Malfour House, and Brenda interesting though Tina seems two-dimensional and sometimes hard to differentiate from Brenda. You also might be jarred out of the mystery at times by the romantic antics of Brenda and Tina.