Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Playing With Fire
    Unavailable
    Playing With Fire
    Unavailable
    Playing With Fire
    Ebook317 pages5 hours

    Playing With Fire

    By Kat Black

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    The Sequel to MELTING MS FROST.

    The steamy story of Annabel Frost and Aidan Flynn continues … Can you handle the heat?

    Before Aidan Flynn had swept into her life with the destructive force of a wildfire, Annabel Frost had thought she'd had all she needed from her life. A successful career, financial independence, emotional restraint. Things that were safe, secure, steady. Everything her childhood hadn't been.

    Aidan represented none of that. Reckless and risky he'd been the red hot flame that melted the icy layers of her long-frozen heart. Having run from him once, Annabel should have learnt to leave trouble well enough alone.

    But now Aidan is back, turning up the heat. And regardless of the danger of getting herself badly burned, Annabel can't seem to resist the temptation to play with this particular fire.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateFeb 26, 2015
    ISBN9780008128241
    Unavailable
    Playing With Fire

    Related to Playing With Fire

    Related ebooks

    Contemporary Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Bridle

      Oct 10, 2021

      Saliva pooled on her tongue beneath the rusty depressor. She endured a constant urge to swallow, afraid of choking on her own fluids. The taste of metal and blood are so akin, it is easy to mistake one for the other. This early in the day, blood was

      11 min read

    • Article

      Safety

      Mar 1, 2023

      IT WAS only a dream, a bad dream, and nothing else. The man in Vidal’s dream was stalking a woman, spying on her from the shadows, following her down a dark alley as she sought refuge from a downpour. The woman was vaguely familiar to Vidal, though h

      13 min read

    • Article

      A New Beginning

      Mar 25, 2022

      A New Beginning
      5 min read

    • Article

      Cast Out

      Jul 10, 2021

      Verity pushed back the quilts, rolled off her straw mattress onto the floor, felt for the poker, and stirred the ashes. The embers glowed. She wouldn’t have to go fire-borrowing again. Her chilled hands were clumsy. One glowing bit of wood rolled fro

      21 min read

    • Article

      Announcing The winners Of Our FLASH CONTEST

      Feb 29, 2020

      I sever the first two fingers of my left hand on a Tuesday. They fall to the ground at my feet, causing a momentary confusion as I wonder what tree has dropped this odd fruit. Then I see the crescent scar left behind by a fish hook and know that thes

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Book for the Moment: On Helen Weinzweig’s ‘Basic Black with Pearls’

      Jun 1, 2018

      This post was produced in partnership with Bloom, a literary site that features authors whose first books were published when they were 40 or older. 1. In our current moment, a chorus of “nasty women” has flooded social media with grievances. Unfortu

      5 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Play Dead

      Mar 3, 2020

      There was a man, let’s call him Henry VIII. There was his wife, let’s call her Anne B. Let’s give them a castle and make it nice. Let’s give her many boy babies but make them dead. Let’s give him a fussy way of being. Let’s make her smart and sneaky,

      17 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      In The Spotlight: Your Writing Genre - Busting

      Apr 4, 2024

      What an inventive lot the WM writers proved themselves to be with the ‘Genre-busting' submission call! The response was terrific, with a postbag full of playful, off-the wall writing that read as if its creators had a gonzo riot mashing up elements f

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Sophia Shalmiyev

      Dec 20, 2019

      Let us begin at the natural home of all the white-men-are-garbage controversies and go right to the crotch area. The post A Year in Reading: Sophia Shalmiyev appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Left To Lose

      Jul 10, 2022

      Around the time she gives up her name, it starts to feel like this entire revolution isn’t worth it anymore. The world is probably lucky that Kelian—she still remembers Kelian, in spite of everything—is there to pick up the pieces, the way he always

      11 min read

    • Article

      Discarded Wraith Of Apartheid

      Apr 13, 2024

      It’s been years since I read a book that strained the Likability Principle as viscerally as Karen Jennings’ new book, Crooked Seeds. Her previous novel, An Island, was longlisted for the Booker Prize, but I fear the more I tell you about Crooked Seed

      2 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      Books

      May 1, 2023

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      From ESTRANGEMENT

      May 1, 2022

      From ESTRANGEMENT
      4 min read

    • Article

      An ever-fixed MARK

      Nov 1, 2023

      An ever-fixed MARK
      6 min read

    • Article

      Freedom

      Aug 6, 2020

      Freedom
      7 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Phillip B. Williams

      Dec 15, 2017

      The masters are yet dead. Wanting to be human,I tried to rewrite The Waste Land. The canon’s reachcasts ruinous light. The masters’ pens breachthis page where, above, my own hand spectates. Babylonrisen, exorcism in reverse, whose nature upended now?

      6 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      Towns Like Ours

      May 3, 2018

      Towns Like Ours
      9 min read

    • Article

      Winter Warmers

      Jun 23, 2023

      BY BETH O’LEARY QUERCUS Reading a Beth O’Leary book is like connecting with an old friend. One of those friends with whom you sit on your couch in your comfiest clothes and get a story worth listening to that will make you laugh and feel sad and eve

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Playing With Fire

    4/5

    12 ratings15 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      another Inspector Banks story. Usually by this time in a series, I begin to tire of characters and tend to put the series aside for awhile. This series has not suffered from that fate however. In this episode, a series of mysterious and apparently unrelated arsons have Banks convinced that the coincidences matter. Although I figured out who the culprit was fairly early, I couldn't figure out how it was pulled off and certainly didn't anticipate the wonderfully dramatic ending. A solid 4 stars for me.
    • 5/5
      4.5 Stars. Another very good read in the series. This one had a very exciting end, and can't wait to read the next one to see what happens next to DCI Banks.
    • 4/5
      DCI Banks is recovering from his breakup with DI Cabbot and getting to terms with her new boyfriend when an art fraud case may be connected with a fire on two houseboats. Another solid installment in a solid series. I do like to follow along in Banks' personal life and those side stories never take over the mystery part, but in this book they do get to mix a little in an unexpected way. I already have the rest of the series waiting in the (virtual) bookcase, so I will definitely continue.
    • 5/5
      What can I say? Another excellent DI Banks mystery.
    • 4/5
      A fire, then another, break out in a small English town, and we join with the police as they search for answers. This is a well-written mystery with interesting, sympathetic characters. Recommend.
    • 4/5
      What more can you say about a Peter Robinson novel than that the maestro is at the top of his game yet again? He and Ian Rankin have a very similar ability to immerse the reader entirely in the lives of their protagonists to the extent that it can be a struggle for readers to pull themselves back into the real world. Yes, these are crime novels, and, yes, there's a strong element of mystery too, but to say only that would really be to mislead.

      This latest installment of the Yorkshire DCI Alan Banks chronicles begins with the destruction by fire of two derelict canal barges and the squatters dwelling within. Forensics soon reveal arson, and that the target was one of the barges, occupied by an unsuccessful artist; the casualty in the other barge, junkie Tina, was either just "collateral damage", as the disgusting euphemism has it, or, perhaps worse, was a deliberate piece of misdirection by the arsonist to obscure his motives. Banks and DI Annie Cabbot and their crew -- notably DC Winsome Jackman, with whom I could all too easily fall in love -- soon unravel an art-forgery conspiracy, especially when there's another arson murder just a few days later; but they also, with the aid of innocent bystander Tina's hotheaded wastrel boyfriend Mark (about whom one begins to care inordinately) uncover a nasty backstory for her involving childhood sexual abuse. Robinson's working through of these two plots in parallel is mesmerizing.

      Each time I finish one of Robinson's novels I wonder briefly why I don't read them more often, and then almost immediately the answer hits me: they're far too good to waste on a binge. Rather, I need to spread them out and savour them, waiting for le moment juste before I pick up the next one. But what a moment of happiness that moment usually proves to be!
    • 4/5
      Superior crime novel. Arson attacks involving a failed artist and a drop-out young couple. The characters are complex, and Banks is aware of his own weaknesses which makes him a far more fascinating character than the perfect, discreet detectives of the P.D. James' era.
    • 4/5
      I absolutely love the Inspector Banks series, and have been reading my way through the series. This book was good with the characters fully fleshed out and enough suspense to keep me turning pages, but it didn't have the "slam in the gut" plot twists that I've come to expect from Peter Robinson. I had figured out who the perpetrator was about halfway through, and that never usually happens with an Inspector Banks book. That is why I gave the book four stars instead of my usual five. There is an arsonist in and around Eastvale, and people are being burned in their homes. At first there doesn't appear to be a connection between the two fires, but as Banks and his team start digging, they find some old history between two of the victims. The characters in these books are what sets this series apart from other police procedurals. Robinson's characters are so brilliant and so alive that it almost seems like you are reading true-crime narratives. I highly recommend this series, but read it starting at book one so you will get the full effect of Robinson's character development.
    • 2/5
      Banks takes the biscuit and is reminded of his youthful dunking...I'm not sure if I've read Peter Robinson before. Probably I have, he's prolific and my wife likes Inspector Banks. I bought Playing with Fire together with Strange Affair and Not Safe After Dark from the Book People for 5 the lot. That should have been warning enough, that they were unsold clearout stock. Inspector Banks is unable to cross the room without receiving a character building flashback from every biscuit crumb, cup of tea, pint of bitter, shot of Laphroaig cask strength. When not puffing his character to bursting point the author is giving a running commentary on every piece of music that Banks is listening to in the house, car, his head, it goes on and on. I thought the characters were adequately painted after a couple of chapters but it didn't stop. This looks like the work of an author who has sacrificed proliferation for quality. If Robinson did, in fact, write this book himself then it may be an indication of what his early drafts are like before the over-detail edit. 445 pages here is probably 300 if the job had been finished. Nevertheless, still have the other two to read to ensure fairness. Perhaps it was a hiccup in his output....as he raised the blue French rustic china mug with a chip on the side that would be mouthwards if he was left handed, which he wasn't, and inhaled the heady aroma of Laphroaig cask strength taken straight, no ice, he was reminded of the smell of the burnt bodies in the charred but rusty hulls of the narrowboats that the moneyed semi-aristocratic owner had forgotten, or even didn't care that, he owned. Perhaps the killer had been left handed and left traces of DNA on the chipped surface when he drank from that same mug, thought Banks, reminding him of his left-handed Uncle Freddy who wore vintage yellow Marigold rubber gloves to weddings.... etc.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this book better than many in this series. Good forensics, and the personal stuff meshed with the story more to my tastes.
    • 2/5
      Playing with Fire starts with an arson, two people died. It turns into a murder investigation when it is discovered that one of the victims was drugged with a date-rape drug. The other victim was unintended. Then there is another fire, also murder. There is also follow up with the boyfriend of the other victim, investigation into allegations of abuse, Peter Robinson does a good job of continuing the two story lines in a logical manner. The characters are not cookie cutter and are very believable. He must do an incredible amount of research. I also like that each novel in the series feels like a stand-alone. He does not do the same plot, same ending, different guest stars with each book in the series.
    • 4/5
      This is an excellent read from the Inspector Banks series. Two fires deliberately set lead Banks and his team from one line of investigation to another. The victims are voluntary recluses from society and don't seem to have any personal links to give a motive. Another fire victim is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and leads to another tragic story altogether. As usual, the author has made his characters people you can associate with and even empathize with. As a side-line there is the complicated relationships with women which are an integral part of Banks' life. The Chief Inspector is himself put in grave danger as the result of the investigation and his association with a female colleague.I would recommend this series to anyone.
    • 5/5
      My first Peter Robinson novel, bought on a trip to Canada. Very impressed and I've read many more since. In this story, a couple of derelict barges on a North Yorkshire canal are burnt to the waterline and Banks has to find out who has died and why. Excellent sense of time and place, all the more impressive as Peter Robinson now lives in Toronto.
    • 3/5
      Either Peter Robinson is slipping or I am getting better at reading his mind. This was the first time since I started reading the series where I was significantly ahead of the story. I was able to discern the bad guy before the story came to the same conclusion. Now, this is only one aspect of reading a mystery, a significant one, but only one. This book, like most of the Inspector Banks series, is a good one. Well written, tightly constructed, has protagonists that you keep caring about, contains enough of the nuts and bolts of police work to educate the reader yet does not bog down in the details to bore the reader. As the previous reviewers had said, this is a story of murders and fires. The details of fire forensics is fascinating as it is. The tale that Robinsons weaves in the telling of the story is equal to the technical details. In addition, the two characters:Banks and Annie Cabbot have come to a point in their evolution within these books to become very interesting and conflicted people. They are quite flawed, as are we all, but they do their jobs and they do it well despite their flaws, as do we all. Robinson allows us a peak at Banks relationship with his ex-wife, which is prickly to say the least. Annie's new beau, too perfect ot be true. And Bank's new flame, another flawed human being. And Annie and Bank's feelings toward each other and the new people in their lives. This sounds sort of like Peyton Place, but Robinsons does a careful job of keeping it separated from the main mystery narrotive, throwing the complications in to either move the narrative along or to slow it down so the reader can breathe. All in all, he is quite successful. I am now eager to read the next story, just to see if Peter Robinson is slipping or whether I am getting better at reading his work.
    • 4/5
      “The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne, burn’d on the water.”It’s not every policeman who can quote from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra while surveying the carnage wrought by fire. Then again, not every policeman is Inspector Alan Banks.Playing With Fire, the fourteenth entry in the Inspector Banks series, contains everything that has made the character a popular read in mystery circles. His brash, world-weary demeanour, his passion for diverse musical selections, his love of action films, his problems with women; all are present and accounted for. It would be easy for Canadian author Peter Robinson to coast on this blueprint for a few novels, relying on reader support to carry Banks through a few less-than-stellar efforts.Luckily, Robinson is not yet ready to rest on his laurels. The multiple-award winning author has had the good fortune to be allowed the opportunity to improve over time, evolving the Banks mysteries from their admittedly minor beginnings to their current regard as distinguished police procedurals. Playing With Fire, a superior example of its kind, takes the reader for a suspenseful ride through red herrings and dead ends, escorted by the estimable talents of Inspector Banks and the spare prose and technical grace of Peter Robinson.As the tale begins, Banks is just arriving on the scene. The bodies of a young junkie and a reclusive artist have been discovered in the burnt-out ruins of two dilapidated barges. Banks, along with partner Annie Cabbot, suspects arson, yet a reason for the destruction of two seemingly lost souls is nowhere to be found. Over the course of 350 pages, suspects and motives emerge and evaporate, leading Banks into an intricate web of paedophilia, drugs, and forgers.As in all truly good mysteries, the mystery itself is secondary to the overall atmosphere of the piece, supplied in large part by locale and character. Banks’s stomping ground of Yorkshire, England, is an inspired choice, at once familiar yet invitingly foreign. Robinson adeptly captures the nuance of local language and colour, creating an intriguing landscape of class warfare and criminal underworld, which Banks adroitly manoeuvres through.Like contemporaries such as Ian Rankin and John Harvey, Robinson also understands that without compelling characters, the readers won’t return. Banks shares the rarefied company of Rankin’s Inspector Rebus and Harvey’s under-appreciated Charlie Resnick, police officers with rich, believable personal lives to compliment their professional accomplishments. Even minor and secondary characters are given moments to shine (especially suspect Mark Siddons and DC Winsome Jackman),each abundant in human frailties and passion, making the novel just that much more vibrant.However, where Rankin and Harvey fully transcend the genre, Robinson’s latest effort falls just shy. For all the sterling dialogue, finely hued characterizations, and in-depth procedural investigation, there remains something decidedly clunky in Robinson’s narrative. While by no means boring, the convolutions of the plot occasionally stretch credibility, with one major plot twist that would be far more at home in the absurd, low-rent soap opera ‘thrillers’ of James Patterson than in Robinson’s undeniably superior efforts.Playing With Fire is still a crackling good read, a hearty dose of grisly remains and harried detectives that keeps the reader guessing until the very last page. In an often-maligned category of literature, Robinson reminds us that good writing is good writing, no matter the genre.