Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Burn (Detective Betty)

The Burn (Detective Betty)
perryfran avatar reviewed on + 1182 more book reviews


This is the second book in Kent's trilogy featuring Betty Rhyzyk, a lesbian narcotics detective with the Dallas Police Department. I read and really enjoyed the first book, THE DIME, a couple of years ago and was really glad to finally get to read this one. In THE BURN, Rhyzyk is recovering from the very harrowing events she suffered in the previous novel. She had managed to escape from the meth-selling cult, the Family, but she is still physically and emotionally distraught by the ordeal. This also affects her significant other, Jackie, as well as her fellow police officers in the narcotics division.

Betty is forced into therapy by her Sergeant and is relegated to desk duty. But someone has been killing drug dealers and it may be another cop. Betty knows her partner, Seth, has been taking pills but could he also be behind the killings? Betty goes rogue to try to get to the bottom of what's happening and along the way she thinks she sees the woman who took her hostage in the last book, Evangeline Roy. And she also meets up with El Cuchillo, "The Knife", a terrifying enforcer for the Sinaloa drug cartel who is missing a million dollars worth of heroin. Betty suffers more hurt along the way and narrowly escapes from a burning building.

I thought this was a very good followup to THE DIME and I'm looking forward to reading the third book in the trilogy, THE PLEDGE. This book can be read as a stand alone novel but I would recommend reading the entire trilogy in order. On to the next book!