I was immediately drawn to the characters and each of their stories. With the mystery and the interconnected stories, I couldn't put this book down. Definitely my favorite of McMahon's so far!

Unfortunately, a machine that can communicate with the dead is one of the more believable things in this book. (!!) I enjoyed the author's earlier works but this felt thrown together, cheap, not well thought out.

That Necco at ages 14-18 never questioned or figured out anything on her own is ridiculous. And a homeless kid living out of a junked car in a lot between, get this, a school and a church?! And no one ever intervened and the cops never ventured to put two and two together?

Theo was a one dimensional character (did she ever get her bag back?) but Pru was a surprising delight. The climax made me laugh, c'mon!! How cliche!!! McMahon can write better than this. At least she used to, and I kinda hope she still can.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/38863515-jenner

Skimmed a lot of last half. Like many authors of this genre, first few are great, then they go off the rails. This one just too far fetched for me, too many threads, too much pandering to outlandish. I miss McMahon just telling me a creepy REALISTIC story. I DEVOURED McMahon's first few novels, then she started experimenting too much. I vowed her last book was my last. This time i think i mean it.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

**Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to review BURNTOWN and for giving me a free e-copy in exchange for my honest review.**


BURNTOWN is a difficult story to summarize, because of the many characters, murders, suicides and subplots. The first third of BURNTOWN was slow and confusing. Miles witnesses his mother's murder at age ten. The perpetrator is a man in a chicken mask with a snake eyes dice tattoo on his wrist. He grows up to marry his childhood sweetheart have have two kids, still hoping to find the man who killed his mother. Then he's killed in The Great Flood and his daughter Eva and wife Lily become homeless. Now the man with the chicken mask is out to get Eva.

One I got into the mysteries, I became drawn into the plot and characters. Chapters switch between the third person points of view of Eva/Necca, her friend Theo, a former circus fat lady Pru and Fred, an incompetent PI. All of the major and minor characters were interesting with unique, though sometimes unbelievable, backgrounds. Theo was my favorite character.

I've been a Jennifer Mahon fan for many years, although I prefer her earlier work. BURNTOWN had too many coincidences to be one of my favorites. Almost all the characters had at least one dead parent, by murder, suicide or "accident", for example. I thought the fire-eating subplot didn't add to the story. I didn't understand why Lily couldn't just go to the police.

While I liked the ending, I thought the reveal of the perp's identity was a bit of a letdown.

I read BURNTOWN in an afternoon. It's a fine read for a rainy day or on the beach, but won't stay with me or be something I'd reread.

So take your pick.

Burntown by Jennifer McMahon seems to have it all: Fantasy, Supernatural, Mystery and Thriller tied up tight and ready to roll.

It's June of 1975 and ten year old Miles Sandeski witnesses his own mother's murder as she lays peacefully in a lawn chair. A bizarro figure of a man dressed in a chicken suit approaches her from behind and does the deed. Miles promises to find her murderer. His father's drowning shortly afterwards is claimed to be a suicide.

Years pass and Miles has a family of his own living in an old farmhouse on a dead-end road. Miles becomes a professor at Two Rivers College. He has in his possession some stolen plans of Thomas Edison. He eventually builds a machine that has the capacity to speak with the dead. Miles is desperate to hear his mother reveal the name of her murderer and divulge the identity of the "Chicken Man".

But a terrible rainstorm and a threatening flood causes Miles to switch plans. As the flood waters inch their way up to the house and shed, he instructs his son, Errol, to destroy the machine. Miles tells his daughter, Eva, to run to safety with her mother, Lily.

Eva wakes with a gash in the back of her head and Lily tells her that both Miles and Errol have drown. Eva has no memory of the incident and the two are on their own living in an abandoned mill and eventually under a bridge called Burntown.

It's at this juncture that you will meet a cast of off-the-wall characters including Fire Eaters with mystical talents and a dangerous figure called Snake Eyes. The first half of the storyline has you locked in tight. Then McMahon opens the spicket wide during the second half and you feel the nudge of not taking this all so serious. Yep, there's murder and mayhem, but the circus does come to town in the end.

I kicked this up to a 4-star for the wild imaginings that take place here. This is certainly not on the same level as The Winter People in which McMahon writes beautifully of a family living on the edge of existence. Burntown is a tree growing from an entirely different acorn. A good read, but not my favorite of McMahon's previous books.

I received a copy of Burntown through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Doubleday Books and to Jennifer McMahon for the opportunity.

Jennifer McMahon, you are just so awesome!
I love this new novel that has a bit of supernatural twist among a fast paced story of old murders, and current survival. The characters are just amazing, I see them so clearly, and how their stories connect is seamless.
Impossible to put down!Jennifer McMahon, you are just so awesome!
I love this new novel that has a bit of supernatural twist among a fast paced story of old murders, and current survival. The characters are just amazing, I see them so clearly, and how their stories connect is seamless.
Impossible to put down!
Thank you so much NetGalley and DoubleDay Books!

One of the best and most unique novels I have read in a long time! Jennifer McMahon writes some of the most chilling and thrilling stories and this one is on par with the rest. Highly recommended!

** Full review to be posted on all channels including my blog closer to release date **

Eva's dad Miles makes all sorts of wonderful inventions. He has plans passed down from his dad that makes a machine that allows you to talk to the dead. Miles's mom was murdered and Miles worries that who murdered her will come after his family for the plans. Then one night a flood occurs. Eva and her Mom get away, Miles and Errol(Eva's brother) are killed. From the flood night on, Eva and her mom Lily are living as street people and trying to stay alive. Then Lily kills herself and Eva is all alone. Eva is living in an old car with her boyfriend Hermes when Hermes is murdered and Eva is a suspect. Yet again Eva is on the run from the murderer. So many secrets and mysteries surround Eva. It is an exciting book that keeps you guessing until the very end when Eva pieces everything together. Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for an ARC for an honest review.

Great book. Loved Ms. McMahon's use of the supernatural once again in a believable way.

I was thrilled to have gotten a chance to read this! I've become a huge fan of McMahon's brand of suspense and twists, and let fans of Gillian Flynn and Chevy Stevens know Jennifer McMahon's books will keep you up past your bedtime and the lights left on. Burntown was a quick read, and the diverse characters and how they all come together was probably my favorite part. The ending was a bit predictable, which is RARE for her novels, but as a whole it was still utterly engaging, with several hold-your-breath moments.

Calling all mystery/thriller fans!!! If you are a fan of suspense novels like I am, than Burntown is most definitely the book for you!! Told from several points of view and spanning over 4 decades, Jennifer McMahon creates a chilling storyline that will keep you glued to your kindle until the very last page!! From reading the synopsis alone, I felt that Burntown sounded unique and original and after reading it, my initial thoughts were spot on!! I love when an author gives us a full background before diving into the heart of novel, and Ms. McMahon does a fantastic job with this! By the time we get to Eva's situation we already had a clear vision of her family's history--loved that! I found it fascinating the domino effect that Miles original situation caused. Burntown is a 5 star read that will keep you on your toes (even after the mystery is revealed)! I thoroughly enjoy this chilling book and look forward to reading more from Jennifer McMahon in the future!!

Eva Sandeski has grown up learning all kinds of things from her professor/inventor father Miles, including that he had secret plans attributed to Thomas Edison for a machine that could talk to the other side. But after Miles builds it, all Eva can remember is that a great flood came and now she and her mother hide from the evil man called Snake Eyes in a homeless encampment called Burntown. When Eva's friend Hermes is murdered after researching her past, Eva, now known as Necco, uses the strength of spirit her mother taught her to find the truth behind the events that so drastically changed her life.

McMahon's unique combination of suspense and what I can only call magical realism fills this story with hope and gives it life. It definitely needs to be on your 2017 list of must reads.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC of Burntown in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this book, read in one day. Keep up the good works by this author. Will strongly recommend.

Ashford Vermont looks like a small New England College town, but it’s better known as burn town because of the remains of all the mills and factories long out of business. Eva Sanduski,better known as Necco, has been part of Burntown’s underworld since her father’s death years before. Miles was a respected professor and the inventor of some pretty spectacular machines, including one said to have been made using plans stolen from Thomas Edison’s workshop. According to Necco’s mother Lily, that’s the reason Miles was murdered and the reason she and Necco have gone into hiding by the river with a strange group of women who call themselves fire eaters.Necco has never believed her mother, but when Lily dies and then Necco’s boyfriend are murdered she is forced to reconsider. Necco goes on the run and ends up teaming up with a group of misfits including a kid who owes money to the wrong people. McMahon writes some of the most unusual and a gripping thrillers being published today and readers won’t be disappointed by her latest book