Life is briefly as it should be for Jack McMorrow: He and his wife Roxanne have retreated from the stress and danger of their day jobs to raise their daughter Sophie. But when development and arson threaten the nearby town of Sanctuary, and a crazy accident brings back mistakes from Roxanne’s past, Jack’s nose for crime leads him into a darker and deeply twisted tale. Something explosive is smoldering beneath the glossy facades and picturesque town square in Sanctuary, and the enemy is closer than he thinks. In "Once Burned," the 10th installment of the internationally popular McMorrow series, Jack will take you alongside as he hunts a killer with a long memory and a very short fuse. Plot, characterization, atmosphere... everything works in Boyle's excellent 10th Jack McMorrow mystery (after 2010's Damaged Goods). Needing a story to sell to the New York Times, freelance crime reporter McMorrow begins investigating minor cases of arson in the town of Sanctuary, Maine, anointed a hidden treasure by a travel magazine and about to become a real estate bonanza. But the fires grow larger as the arsonist's self-control crumbles, while townspeople's ugly prejudices emerge as they try to preserve their community's seemingly perfect image. Meanwhile, McMorrow is increasingly concerned at how his social worker wife, Roxanne, is letting a disturbed young woman, Beth, insinuate herself into their home; Beth confuses her dead child with their trusting five-year-old daughter, Sophie. As McMorrow keeps stirring the pot, people start dying. Readers who enjoyed Robert B. Parker's ability to create smart, convincing heroes with a tough-guy surface but warmly empathetic interior will welcome this worthy successor. --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) The details are crisp, the writing is concise, and Boyle's keen observational skills come across in the character and dialogue. --Steve Steinbock, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Once Burned is a well-written, suspenseful thriller. Its characters are uniquely different from one to the next. Boyle weaves his double-plot story with skill until all lines cross...Boyle skillfully creates unique characters you'll remember long after closing his book…Once Burned is action-packed with carefully drawn, memorable characters. --Lloyd Ferriss, Portland Press Herald Like many crime novelists, Gerry Boyle began his writing career in newspapers―a place he calls the best training ground ever. After attending Colby College, he knocked around at various jobs, including stints as a roofer, a postman, and a manuscript reader at a big New York publisher. He began his newspaper career in the paper mill town of Rumford, Maine. There was a lot of small-town crime in Rumford and Gerry would later mine his Rumford time for his first novel, Deadline. After a few months he moved on to the Morning Sentinel in Waterville, where editors gave him a thrice-weekly column. He wrote about the stuff he saw in police stations, courtrooms, and in the towns and cities of Maine. All the while he was also typing away on a Smith-Corona electric typewriter writing Deadline, which came out in 1993.