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DS Catherine Bishop #4
Home Fires Burn
A single spark can start a blaze…
DS Catherine Bishop’s life was thrown into turmoil by one of the most brutal cases of her career, and she is still dealing with the aftermath. But her own trauma must be put aside when she is called to a horrific scene of domestic violence – and murder.
The investigation brings intense scrutiny for a police department already overwhelmed by the crimes of an arsonist hellbent on destruction. And as Catherine learns about the victims, it leads to more questions than answers.
By the time the puzzle pieces fall into place, Catherine will once more have come dangerously close to risking everything. Does she still have what it takes to bring a killer to justice – or will her demons prove the ruin of Catherine after all?
DS Catherine Bishop’s life was thrown into turmoil by one of the most brutal cases of her career, and she is still dealing with the aftermath. But her own trauma must be put aside when she is called to a horrific scene of domestic violence – and murder.
The investigation brings intense scrutiny for a police department already overwhelmed by the crimes of an arsonist hellbent on destruction. And as Catherine learns about the victims, it leads to more questions than answers.
By the time the puzzle pieces fall into place, Catherine will once more have come dangerously close to risking everything. Does she still have what it takes to bring a killer to justice – or will her demons prove the ruin of Catherine after all?
- GenresCrime
289 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 24, 2020
38 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Hartley
24 books57 followersLisa Hartley lives with her partner, son, two dogs and several cats.
She graduated with a BA (Hons) in English Studies, then had a variety of jobs but kept writing in her spare time.
She is currently working on the next DS Catherine Bishop novel, as well as a new series with Canelo.
She graduated with a BA (Hons) in English Studies, then had a variety of jobs but kept writing in her spare time.
She is currently working on the next DS Catherine Bishop novel, as well as a new series with Canelo.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 20, 2020
This is the fourth book in the Catherine Bishop series by author Lisa Hartley. This is the first book I have read by this author and starting on book four didn't spoil my enjoyment in the slightest.
DS Catherine Bishop's is facing one of the most brutal cases of her career when two dead bodies are discovered in the family home. On top of that their is an arsonist on the loose causing destruction everywhere. There seem to be more questions than answers and Catherine faces the pressures from seniors to get results before more death and destruction can take place.
This is a very good police procedural series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Good characters, well plotted and lots of action
I would like to thank both Netgalley and Canelo for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
DS Catherine Bishop's is facing one of the most brutal cases of her career when two dead bodies are discovered in the family home. On top of that their is an arsonist on the loose causing destruction everywhere. There seem to be more questions than answers and Catherine faces the pressures from seniors to get results before more death and destruction can take place.
This is a very good police procedural series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Good characters, well plotted and lots of action
I would like to thank both Netgalley and Canelo for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
September 24, 2020
Home Fires Burn is the fourth instalment in the DS Catherine Bishop series, set in and around Northolme. It isn't a necessity to have read the previous three books in order to enjoy or comprehend this one although it probably is preferable and it's no hardship when the series is so well executed. Catherine is still attempting to recover as best she can from her last case which affected her in quite an extreme way. Despite her being traumatised she decides it's time to go back to police work and hopes her first few cases will go easy on her but she has no such luck. She rapidly becomes entangled in three seemingly different but equally dangerous crimes. A number of fires have been set across the town by what the police have deemed is an arsonist, the bodies of a husband and wife have been discovered dead in their apartment under suspicious circumstances and the corpse of another man has been found in one of the torched buildings. Each of the cases comes with its issues. There is not enough manpower to stake out the empty buildings that could be targeted next, the married couple were killed hours apart and the guy found in the shell of the building had been strangled before the place was set ablaze. Can the cases be solved before more death and destruction occurs?
This is a compulsive and complex set of cases and as more bodies drop it becomes even more complicated with the level of dangerousness being ratcheted up to a maximum. It's a creepy, intense and action-packed police procedural and is full of twists and turns from the beginning. I never lost interest in the plot and there were no dull moments where I felt it dragged or the story petered out. The chapters simply flew by with enough included in each to propel the tale forward and the pacing was pretty spot on. Riveting from the very beginning, there is so much action that you are always on the edge of your seat. The ripples and repercussions of the last case are still being strongly adding more pressure to Catherine's situation; you really feel for her when she is thrown back in at the deep end when she restarts work as the unexpected comes into play. A page-turner with an interesting and well-developed cast, some powerful twists, a tense and often spine-chilling atmosphere and a satisfying conclusion. Roll on number five! Highly recommended. Many thanks to Canelo for an ARC.
This is a compulsive and complex set of cases and as more bodies drop it becomes even more complicated with the level of dangerousness being ratcheted up to a maximum. It's a creepy, intense and action-packed police procedural and is full of twists and turns from the beginning. I never lost interest in the plot and there were no dull moments where I felt it dragged or the story petered out. The chapters simply flew by with enough included in each to propel the tale forward and the pacing was pretty spot on. Riveting from the very beginning, there is so much action that you are always on the edge of your seat. The ripples and repercussions of the last case are still being strongly adding more pressure to Catherine's situation; you really feel for her when she is thrown back in at the deep end when she restarts work as the unexpected comes into play. A page-turner with an interesting and well-developed cast, some powerful twists, a tense and often spine-chilling atmosphere and a satisfying conclusion. Roll on number five! Highly recommended. Many thanks to Canelo for an ARC.
August 3, 2020
289 pages
4 stars
DS Catherine Bishop is still trying to recover from her last case when she rejoins the police department only to be assigned to a murder case and a particularly horrible arson spree.
A man and a woman are dead in a home where the neighbors hear their two young children crying. The bodies are then discovered. Murder/suicide? Intruder murder? What happened here? No sooner than they begin to view the bodies and she and the rest of her team are called to another arson fire.
The cases turn out to be particularly trying and complex. Perseverance and determination see the team through, however, in solving the cases. But not before some terrifying incidences occur.
This book is well written as are all of Ms. Hartley's novels. The plotting was a little difficult to follow at times, but careful reading does the trick. I enjoy this author's books and will continue to read her works.
I want to thank NetGalley and Canelo for forwarding to me a copy of this great book for me to read, enjoy and review.
4 stars
DS Catherine Bishop is still trying to recover from her last case when she rejoins the police department only to be assigned to a murder case and a particularly horrible arson spree.
A man and a woman are dead in a home where the neighbors hear their two young children crying. The bodies are then discovered. Murder/suicide? Intruder murder? What happened here? No sooner than they begin to view the bodies and she and the rest of her team are called to another arson fire.
The cases turn out to be particularly trying and complex. Perseverance and determination see the team through, however, in solving the cases. But not before some terrifying incidences occur.
This book is well written as are all of Ms. Hartley's novels. The plotting was a little difficult to follow at times, but careful reading does the trick. I enjoy this author's books and will continue to read her works.
I want to thank NetGalley and Canelo for forwarding to me a copy of this great book for me to read, enjoy and review.
January 3, 2021
Catherine Bishop working in an overwhelmed police force is just trying to get over a traumatic attack in the past. Still under medication, she is slowly getting to grips with herself and has thrown herself headlong into the latest cases. Deaths which seem to be involving domestic violence. A young couple dead leaving behind two babies.
Added to this is an arsonist in town, setting alight businesses. Now he has upped his game and set fire to a business with an inmate inside and this is now arson and murder. When investigations reveal that the victim was first murdered and then the building was set alight it adds another dimension to the recent incidents and the detectives in charge of the case, are now looking to find links between the three deaths though on the surface, no one was known to each other nor knew each other.
We have arson, rapists, domestic violence, robbery and everything going in the mix to put the detectives off the scent. Every witness brought forward seems to be hiding secrets and it is difficult to find out any clues as to who killed whom.
Slowly evolving, the detection work goes step by step and it is sheer plod that gets the work done.
Very well told, this was a good story.
Added to this is an arsonist in town, setting alight businesses. Now he has upped his game and set fire to a business with an inmate inside and this is now arson and murder. When investigations reveal that the victim was first murdered and then the building was set alight it adds another dimension to the recent incidents and the detectives in charge of the case, are now looking to find links between the three deaths though on the surface, no one was known to each other nor knew each other.
We have arson, rapists, domestic violence, robbery and everything going in the mix to put the detectives off the scent. Every witness brought forward seems to be hiding secrets and it is difficult to find out any clues as to who killed whom.
Slowly evolving, the detection work goes step by step and it is sheer plod that gets the work done.
Very well told, this was a good story.
April 11, 2022
A decent police procedural but perhaps not the best of the DS Catherine Bishop series.
A series of arsons at commercial properties and a domestic double murder keep the team busy. Under pressure to produce results, Bishop and her colleagues work around the clock. The clues are slow to come but progress is made and a cast of potential suspects established.
The ending (without spoilers) feels rather rushed. 300 pages in, connections are made and the solutions suddenly appear. Everything is wrapped up neatly in the last few pages, but it feels just a little unsatisfying.
A series of arsons at commercial properties and a domestic double murder keep the team busy. Under pressure to produce results, Bishop and her colleagues work around the clock. The clues are slow to come but progress is made and a cast of potential suspects established.
The ending (without spoilers) feels rather rushed. 300 pages in, connections are made and the solutions suddenly appear. Everything is wrapped up neatly in the last few pages, but it feels just a little unsatisfying.
July 25, 2022
These books just seem to keep getting better. The characters become very real and the plots are good ones. I will definitely be reading more Lisa Hartley novels.
September 8, 2020
DS Catherine Bishop is returning to work after a (presumably) harrowing and traumatic incident in a previous book. This is book four in the series, but it stands well on its own as a standalone if you're coming in somewhere in the middle (or current end) of the series, as I have.
Bishop has returned, and is immediately thrown back into the field. There's an arsonist roaming around, randomly setting things on fire, and Bishop is sent out with another detective to stake out a business.
In the midst of their arson problem, the police are presented with another issue: two people, a man and a woman, killed in their flat. Murder-suicide? Possibly, since the couple argued often, according to the nosy neighbors, but the clues don't point to that, as the woman has been shot and the man has died of brute force trauma to the head.
We have the usual tropes that show up: the previously mentioned nosy neighbors, the pissed off family members of the dead woman who wanted to get her away from this abusive partner of hers, interveiwees possibly hiding something, and so on. However, they are not intrusive, and are more along the lines of what readers expect in the genre.
Adding to the problems DS Bishop and her colleagues is yet another arson, this time with someone crisped by the fire - but with a twist I won't mention.
There's a secondary story about Bishop and her relationship with Isla, a woman on a specialized department who may or may not be heading to London to go with her superior officer in a promotion of sorts. There are times when the remarks by some of her colleagues are annoying, but overall, the feelings Bishop has about a new and long distance relationship come through as authentic.
There are twists and turns galore, tons of suspects and people to question, and perps that can be guessed, but there's a situation with the secondary perp at the end that is a hold your breath and then breathe a sigh of relief that's well done.
Overall, I can rate this book in this way: after I finished it, I went and bought the first three in the series, so I can catch up. I don't do this often, as first novels introducing characters have to carry a lot of baggage to get the series underway.
A solid four stars out of five.
Thanks to Canelo and NetGalley for the review copy.
Bishop has returned, and is immediately thrown back into the field. There's an arsonist roaming around, randomly setting things on fire, and Bishop is sent out with another detective to stake out a business.
In the midst of their arson problem, the police are presented with another issue: two people, a man and a woman, killed in their flat. Murder-suicide? Possibly, since the couple argued often, according to the nosy neighbors, but the clues don't point to that, as the woman has been shot and the man has died of brute force trauma to the head.
We have the usual tropes that show up: the previously mentioned nosy neighbors, the pissed off family members of the dead woman who wanted to get her away from this abusive partner of hers, interveiwees possibly hiding something, and so on. However, they are not intrusive, and are more along the lines of what readers expect in the genre.
Adding to the problems DS Bishop and her colleagues is yet another arson, this time with someone crisped by the fire - but with a twist I won't mention.
There's a secondary story about Bishop and her relationship with Isla, a woman on a specialized department who may or may not be heading to London to go with her superior officer in a promotion of sorts. There are times when the remarks by some of her colleagues are annoying, but overall, the feelings Bishop has about a new and long distance relationship come through as authentic.
There are twists and turns galore, tons of suspects and people to question, and perps that can be guessed, but there's a situation with the secondary perp at the end that is a hold your breath and then breathe a sigh of relief that's well done.
Overall, I can rate this book in this way: after I finished it, I went and bought the first three in the series, so I can catch up. I don't do this often, as first novels introducing characters have to carry a lot of baggage to get the series underway.
A solid four stars out of five.
Thanks to Canelo and NetGalley for the review copy.
September 28, 2020
A good detective story where thhe plot is not too obvious, but which does not stretch the realms of possibility too much. One criticism would be that sometimes the investigation takes a diversion, the relevance of which is not always apparent at the time of reading , but as the book progresses you begin to see the bigger picture.
I liked the main detectives, Catherine and Jonathon. This is the first book I have read of the series so I don't know the details of what they have gone through previously. These are mentioned in the book, but not to the extent that you think , yes I know that now which can be a negative in a later installment in a series. I did not feel at a disadvantage that I have not read any of the previous books about Catherine.
Plenty of suspense and enough opportunities to think about the perpetrators of the crime. I did feel that the ending was a bit rushed(hence 4 stars) , but look forward to reading more from this author
Thank you to Net Galley , the author and Canelo publishing for a good read in excahnge for an honest review
I liked the main detectives, Catherine and Jonathon. This is the first book I have read of the series so I don't know the details of what they have gone through previously. These are mentioned in the book, but not to the extent that you think , yes I know that now which can be a negative in a later installment in a series. I did not feel at a disadvantage that I have not read any of the previous books about Catherine.
Plenty of suspense and enough opportunities to think about the perpetrators of the crime. I did feel that the ending was a bit rushed(hence 4 stars) , but look forward to reading more from this author
Thank you to Net Galley , the author and Canelo publishing for a good read in excahnge for an honest review
January 16, 2021
This is the fourth book in the series featuring Detective Catherine Bishop. I hadn’t read the other books in the series but enjoyed this as a stand-alone. Catherine is still traumatised from her last case and is hoping to ease back into work but she ends up facing two brutal cases. A young couple, Hollie and Andy, are found murdered in their home and there is also an arsonist on the loose and in the latest fire a body is discovered, Catherine learns that Andy was violent towards his wife and so it seems plain that she killed him but when the pathologist informs her that they were killed hours apart Catherine begins to wonder if the cases are linked. This book was a really good read, well plotted with plenty of twists and turns. A good crime thriller.
Thanks to Netgalley and Canelo for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
Thanks to Netgalley and Canelo for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
May 31, 2021
At last this is a great, exceptionally great, police procedural. There’s so many deaths, multiple arson fires, rapes, lies, betrayals, babies, pregnancies and nothing adds up, nothing is as it seems, it’s one wild crazy book that takes a great police investigative team to unravel all the stories. I can’t say I followed all the clues and got all the answers, but it has been the best of the Catherine Bishop series. If you like intrigue, suspense, and full-throttle storytelling, you’ll like this.
August 11, 2020
This is book four in the series
I had a bit of a problem getting into this one but slower to get started. It was well written and it’s better if you read the other stories in the setThe story was about a detective Catherine Bishop working on a murder case and an arson spree had a lot of her private life in the story not my cup of tea
I had a bit of a problem getting into this one but slower to get started. It was well written and it’s better if you read the other stories in the setThe story was about a detective Catherine Bishop working on a murder case and an arson spree had a lot of her private life in the story not my cup of tea
September 11, 2020
Book four in the Detective Catherine Bishop series starts off at a slow pace. The plot was a bit difficult to follow at times but the book was well written with plenty twists and a few suspects. I would recommend reading the other books in the series for background detail but this can be read as a stand alone. A good crime thriller. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.
December 28, 2020
Wow what a ‘who dunnit’ that was ! I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where I didn’t have at least some sort of clue as to who the culprit was but with this one I must admit it had me flummoxed!! Great storyline will definitely read more in this series
Thank you to NetGalley and Canelo for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
Thank you to NetGalley and Canelo for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
May 30, 2021
Great series
Always brave choosing a new author and character but I've really enjoy DS Bishops adventures, especially as they set around lincolnshire, hoping there is more to come
Always brave choosing a new author and character but I've really enjoy DS Bishops adventures, especially as they set around lincolnshire, hoping there is more to come
May 10, 2021
3.5 stars.
May 31, 2021
Fantastic
A brilliant series I couldn't read it quick enough. Looking forward to reading more about ds bishop and team. Get reading
A brilliant series I couldn't read it quick enough. Looking forward to reading more about ds bishop and team. Get reading
August 19, 2023
My rating reflects the poor editing. I've never read a book with so many errors. Words missing, extra words etc. It really messed with the flow of the story line. Very disappointing.
May 31, 2025
Great read
July 12, 2025
I’ve finally got to grips with the nicknames thank god, loved the plot, still a little hard to follow with so many characters but enjoyed it
November 26, 2021
Read books 1 -4 in the DS Catherine Bishops series.
Good interesting read and kept my interest for the whole of the series. Good characters and interesting to watch DS Bishops character develope throughout the series. Hope that Lisa Hartley sees fit to pen a book 5.
Good interesting read and kept my interest for the whole of the series. Good characters and interesting to watch DS Bishops character develope throughout the series. Hope that Lisa Hartley sees fit to pen a book 5.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews