Preview
  • The Burn

  • Detective Betty, Book 2
  • By: Kathleen Kent
  • Narrated by: Christie Moreau
  • Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (79 ratings)

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The Burn

By: Kathleen Kent
Narrated by: Christie Moreau
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Publisher's summary

In this "deeply satisfying" thriller, Detective Betty Rhyzyk is up against a string of mysterious assassinations, an increasingly reckless partner, and her worst fear—desk duty—when she decides to go rogue . . . heading straight into the dark underworld of Dallas's most dangerous drug cartel (The Washington Post).

2021 Edgar Award Nominee—G.P. Putnam's Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award

Not much can make Detective Betty Rhyzyk flinch. But when forced into therapy, a desk assignment, and domestic bliss following a terrifying run-in with an apocalyptic cult, she’s having trouble readjusting to life as it once was. At home, she struggles to connect with her loving wife, Jackie. At work, someone has been assassinating confidential informants. To make matters worse, Betty’s partner seems to be increasingly dependent on the painkillers he was prescribed for injuries he sustained narrowly rescuing her.

Betty’s at the point of breaking when she decides to go rogue, on a chase that will lead her to the dark heart of a drug cartel terrorizing Dallas, and straight to the crooked cops who plan to profit from it all.

"A labyrinth of a police procedural punctuated by non-stop action . . . Gripping."—Associated Press

©2020 Kathleen Kent (P)2020 Mulholland Books
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Critic reviews

"Gripping . . . Briskly paced, The Burn barely allows the reader to take a breath as believable twists careen throughout."—Oline Cogdill, Associated Press

"Deeply satisfying . . . [Betty is] an obsessive, borderline unstable, fascinating, Brooklyn-born seeker of truth. . . . With Betty Rhyzyk, Kathleen Kent brings those mean streets to life as excitingly as anybody has in years."—The Washington Post
"Harsh, violent reality is the daily fare for Dallas police detective Betty Rhyzyk, the narrator of Kathleen Kent's satisfying The Burn."— The Wall Street Journal

Featured Article: Best Mystery Series—Listens That'll Take You Right to the Crime Scene


While a standalone mystery is great when you're in the mood for a one-and-done, sometimes you want to feed your craving with an entire mystery series—knowing there's a world and characters you can keep coming back to for the satisfaction of solving crimes. With audiobooks, you get the added bonus of sinking deeper into the setting, clues, and suspects as the story is performed for you, so you'll feel like you're alongside detectives, ready to bust a case.

What listeners say about The Burn

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

View of the Narcotics Underworld

Kathleen Kent carries us into a world we have not seen or experienced. Her masterful depiction of the underworld pulls us into places and characters we cannot imagine on our own. Weaving these characters, both good and evil together, we feel we are right in the heart of her story. MS Kent leaves us hanging by our fingernails with fear and yet manages to show us a soft compassionate side of this life. I would say this is a real page-turner but since it is an audible book I must say I sat in many grocery store parking lot, listening to how they will escape from these thrilling heart stopping situations! I do have one question. Why did she name this brash, brave, strong leading character Betty? (i.e. Betty White, Betty Boop). It seems to me she should have a strong boy / girl name like her partner Jackie, or Tracy, Parker, Rex.
Christie Moreau was excellent as the narrator. Her gritty voice brings to life Betty's pain, hate, fear, anguish, and even love. Clearly we are one with her - in her skin. Her change of voices pulls out the many character personalities which makes the story come alive. I especially like her portrayal of Dawn Rose and feel I can picture her perfectly. Her voice has full reins on our emotions, from sheer terror to tender, soft-spoken love.
I was captivated by both the author and the narrator and would highly recommend this book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Kent scores again

Well written with twists and turns to keep you guessing. The humanity of the inner character of her detective is evolving. Her character is still functional with anxiety and fear. Well done.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent!

I loved The Burn. Lots of action. Lots of police procedure. Note: It will really be more enjoyable and clear if you read or listen to The Dime before you listen to The Burn.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

l love but

okay okay so this is the second book. of the new series of a badass a Narcotics, detective. and I enjoy the second book. The second book open up beautifully it did have a slow start because the character is recovering I'm not going to spoil it and say what she's recovering. from but she's recovering from what happened to her in book one. now is first-person narrative. so you're in the character's mindset of the of the book. and so you with her through all her journey now one thing. I caught on to this that I didn't catch on to the first book is in the first book you got the prologue in that prologue. it was a past flashback.

and it was telling us about her first Contact As A Beat cop with a cult. the person that deals with Cults and it gave you a premonition. or for shearling of what the first book. was going to be about dealing with cults the second book. again does the same thing and gives us a foreshadowing of her childhood. and we get a sense of what the book is going to be about and the prologue was about betrayal and I thought that was set up very well so once I caught on to that I got Shivers and from the first chapter it was nothing but non-stop for me


now here in order the book left us off with the covering character. I can't remember her name at the moment but the character is at a point now at the end of the book where hopefully. she's ready to tackle her trauma. and try to get her life back she has a life kind of like now. at the end of the book kind of set in the priorities. that it was supposed to be set in I'm so I'm looking forward to the third book. and I do got some not like stuff that took place in this book.


for the things I did not like was the narrator's perpetrator of some of the voices. including the main characters voices that. if you read the first book is a different narrator the first book.

I absolutely love with the narrow. did in the first book which was give everybody their own voice for example. the uncle when the protagonist was thinking about her uncle. if he said it's something even through the flashbacks. in the first book he had his own voice which was a Gruff voice it was a masculine voice to sound.like someone who smoked or drink very heavily. and you can tell by the way he talked even. in her thoughts and she will hear his voice he had his own voice.

in the second book the narrator. did not do that it just kind of stayed the same which threw me off because. I enjoy hearing different tones of voices. coming from each character. and it just it messed up the whole dynamic. of the story to me. if I did not focused long enough on the voices i would fine. but I had to try not to pay attention to the voices and trying to pay attention to the story if that makes sense. without going deep into the voices because. cuz it took me out of the story.

now for the rest of the males voices I have to admit the rest of the males voices sound like preteens. like her partner for example in the first book he had an accent to him. but in the second book he had a high pitch tone he sounded like a preteen to me. and all the rest of the male characters that was supposed to have this bad ass or just like tougher to them sound like teenagers to me.

I'm not sending the performance was bad. to the point where. I couldn't listen to it no. but because I listen to the first book. in the first book had already set the tone for what these characters was going to sound like. this other narrator take on the character's voices messed up. compared to the first narrative done in the first book. so I just would have preferred at the same narrative from the first book.

rate the performance of 3 hopefully. didn't like the characters voices rest of the performance give it a Solid 4. storyline I give it a Solid 5

the first book narrator of a deep voice. and I like that voice better in the way she went out the character.she gave them their own voices even though this was a first-person story. we still got to know the other characters because. they had their own voices and that's what I liked it that way still one of my favorite books.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not a strong Burn.

Really wanted to like this book. Love reading mysteries that have strong female lead characters. But this novel was filled with prolonged passages of melodrama and for my taste too much ersatz phraseology. There was very little mystery to the mystery and It was all too clear ‘who done it’ 1/2 way thru book. Additionally there were little continuity things that just didn’t make sense- how Detective Betty after narrowly escaping with her life and being seriously burned in a fire couldn’t pick up her cell phone but her next action is to open a car door and hop in the passengers seat with a fellow detective!? The most difficult part of this book was the narrator’s attempted Texas accent which was even more difficult to hear when she was narrating the male characters.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Predictable

The story is trite and predictable. It’s similar to The Dime and after what Betty had gone through. It’s disappointing since she is an enlightened policewoman, but the problems and stupidity of her actions are maddening given it’s 2014 not 1990.
Save the credit and get something else like Walter Mosley. It’s

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