Whilst it took me a while to get into this book I liked the twists and turns it took you through, Jessie is very likeable and I look forward to her next drama. The Army aspect bought something new to the book and I thoroughly enjoyed it

Great multi-layered plot, great characters, and a perfectly complex protagonist.
Thoroughly enjoyable read. Well written intro to what will be an intriguing series.

Thank you HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for a great read.

II thought that the premise of this book sounded interesting and was quite excited to read it. Unfortunately I found the first half of the book far too slow paced. Whenever something piqued my interest it was not mentioned again. I could have quite easily put this book down and not bothered to pick it back up again. What saved this book for me was the lead character Psychologist Jessie Flynn. I really loved her character and enjoyed getting to know her but the actual story just didn't keep me interested at all. I also enjoyed the authors writing style. It flowed nicely and was easy to read. The second half of the book was much better than the first half. This is the first in a series and at this present moment I am unsure whether I will read anymore in this series.

Fantastic start to a new series. Can't wait to read the next one!

Jessica Flynn is a psychologist working with the Defence Psychology Service.

Unusually, she is asked to see a child. Sami is a four year old boy, referred by his father, with a preliminary diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. But Jessie isn't so sure about that.
The main focus of the story revolives around Jessie and Sami''s counselling sessions. These bring about some questions. Who is the girl? Who is the shadowman? What is it about the torch? - These are questions that made me want to read on.
There is also a secondary story within the book. Jessie is asked to help Captain Ben Callan (a previous patient of hers) with a case. He works in the Military Police Special Investigation Branch, and needed a psychologist to assess a suspect.
I really enjoyed reading this book. The characters were strong, and I felt so sad for poor little Sami. I have marked it down to a four star, as I did find the story got a bit slow in places. Most of it though I found riveting, and was up late reading it.
I'd like to read another Jessie Flynn book, and see how this character develops with different plots.

A taut, beguiling read that took me on a helter-skelter of a ride from start to finish. Loved it and look forward to reading more about Jessie Flynn in future books by this author.

I chose to read this NetGalley ARC for which I have given a voluntary and unbiased review.

Fire Damage is a dark thriller with a psychological feel to it based around the army and the traumas that come as a result of this.

We meet Sami a little 4 year old boy who is deeply troubled and traumatised.
Jessie is Sami's psychologist and when they very first meet, Sami attacks Jessie.
It's clear from early on that he has a lot of deep rooted emotional problems and it's not going to be easy for Jessie.
Jessie believes Sami is suffering from PTSD .
Sami is the son of an army Major and he has he's own issues when he becomes injured and disfigured as a result of the army.

We meet a former patient of Jessies, Captain Ben Callan who is now back at work and in need of her help. He is working on a new case and needs Jessie professional help.
She is reluctant to help but gradually after hearing the case she gives in. Something isn't right and the facts don't seem to be adding up.

Early on you can see traits of emotional scaring within Jessie and we soon discover she suffers from OCD as a result of the death of her brother.
Jessie is battling her own demons as well as trying so desperately to help Sami.

There are twists and not everything is as it seems.
When a body is washed up on the beach things start to unravel as they investigate further it seems that there might just be a link. But who is trying to cover up, and at what expense.

I feel there are a lot of very sensitive subjects raised within the story such as PTSD and OCD and it shows Kate has researched them well. As each subject is treated with respect and sensitivity.

There was definitely a dark and sinister feel but I couldn't help wanting to read more. I wanted to find out the truth as I really didn't expect what was to be uncovered.
There is also some very strong emotional moments, that is raw at some points.

Overall a good read. Definitely recommend if you like psychological thrillers with deep rooted emotion.

This actually wasn't to my taste; I felt there was far too much happening at once, right from the beginning. It started with a traumatised child being interviewed by a military psychologist, with its own attendant mystery, then there was a military murder case brought to her straight afterwards, followed by a visit to the original child's horribly injured father suffering from his own PTSD, then back to the military murder suspect, all the while we are learning about the psychologist's own crippling OCD issues. I felt exhausted, bombarded and wanted to focus on one story at a time.
That being said, I think the writing was strong, and the author clearly knowledgeable about the setting and central action. If you like military-focused thrillers with complex interwoben plots, this might well be your cup of tea, but for me it was too diffuse.

This is an amazing book. So many storylines but all comes together in a dramatic climax. The reader is kept guessing right to the end of the book. Thank goodness this is the first in the series so more to come!!

really enjoyed the debut White Crocodile book by this author which was set in Cambodia and this second in the series (although standalone) is just as gripping. It’s a serious subject - psychological harm, damaged characters, PTSD - but the author really treats these with respect and a gripping story to pull you in, empathize and keep you hooked.

Dr Jessie Flynn, the military psychologist of the story is perhaps the most damaged of all and I found it really heartwarming yet poignant as she tried to help a traumatized 4 year old. I can’t imagine being a child looking at their father’s injuries like that and my heart went out to him. The entire novel and subject matter just felt so real and raw and even though I have no personal experience of this (thank goodness) I felt as if I understood and was shown the reality of what we never really see when war stories are reported.

Respect to the author for dealing with this subject in such a sensitive yet raw way as well as writing a novel which grips and moves you. No easy feat - the Medina magic has worked again.

This was such a pleasant surprise!
Jessie Flynn is a psychologist treating the troubled four-year-old son of an army Major. Ben Callan is a Captain trying to figure out why a soldier shot a fellow British corporal while on tour in Afghanistan. Bobby 'Marilyn' Simmons is a DI investigating a murder in which the only remains recovered are a burnt torso. As I expected the three stories ended up being related, but the whole picture turned out to be so complex that most of it was completely unexpected for me, not to mention heartbreaking.
Jessie Flynn is very appealing as an MC. As usual the girl is beautiful and resourceful, but she also has issues, and I mean ISSUES. I loved how she wasn't above using not-so-moral means in order to help Sami, and how her dealing with OCD was depicted. The relationship with Callan here is mostly professional and the romance is barely hinted, but the pair definitely have chemistry and it will be interesting to see how this is developed in future books.
I have some minor issues with the book and a big one.
There's a lot of army talk and terminology, which is necessary for the story as both Jessie and Ben are military and working army cases, but this dragged the story a bit for me.
The final scene between Jessie and her mother was too saccharine - their relationship was one of the things that interested me the most, and the way everything was solved felt too rushed and unrealistic in my opinion.
My big issue is the writing. It's not bad, but I wished the author would have kept things simpler. Maybe it's because English is not my first language, but the way most sentences were constructed made me feel like Yoda had written the book, which was confusing at times and diverted the attention from a story that is actually pretty good.

I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone loving a good thriller, stories with a heartbreaking touch and characters that are not what they seemed.

There are good and not-as-good elements of “Fire Damage,” although I mostly enjoyed Kate Medina’s book. Here’s why:

The author weaves a good story, blending different subplots throughout and keeping the pace steady with short chapters. Ms. Medina’s writing is so smooth that her action and dialogue proceed naturally and readers easily connect with the story without being jarred back to reality every other page. In fact, it was her talent that kept me reading in spite of the items I felt hindered the book.

The initial chapter seemed choppy and a bit forced. I realize authors feel they need to have an exciting first chapter, but good, competent writing (which Ms. Medina has in abundance) will keep readers around long enough to unfold the basic plot elements.

I also don’t understand why the great majority of mystery and thriller writers saddle the main character with an issue like OCD, PTSD, or whatever flavor seems to be popular. A good character has flaws, yes, but doesn’t have to be drowning in them. I am not saying Ms. Medina didn’t handle her character well (she did), but the psychiatrist/officer/detective with psychiatric issues has become a cliché. At least the main character, Jessie, wasn’t alone, as others in the book either should be participating in psychiatric sessions or had recently seen someone.

The twists at the end were a bit flat, and I thought the final danger was “self-inflicted,” similar to what happens when watching a horror movie. We all know the heroine shouldn’t enter the haunted house and should go straight to the police but she enters the house anyway. Yes, I know that there has to be a confrontation at the end, but I thought it could have been arranged differently.

Bottom line: Ms. Medina successfully fleshes out many of her characters, and the plot is good. The author has exceptional writing talents and artfully keeps you entertained even during the slow or dry parts of the book. In the hands of other writers, this may have been a three-star effort. Ms. Medina’s talent bumps it to four.

I found this book quite fast paced and the story jumped about a bit so struggled at times to keep up! However once it all started coming together it was an intriguing plot, I was interested in knowing what Sami was scared of and how the other stories were linked. I enjoyed the backdrop relationship between Jessie and Ben and hope it continues in further books

This was a good read which held the attention, and made me want to get to the bottom of what was going on. Plenty chance to guess (wrongly) at who was behind events, and why. The end was darker than I expected and I did gasp out loud at one point. I want to see more of Jessie, and hope that future adventures will be with Ben Callan too, as I'd like to see the relationship progress. Some nice light touches like the relationship with Ahmose, her neighbour.

I would just like to thank Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book.

This is the first book that i have read by Kate Medina and i would like to say that it will not be my last.

Fire Damage is a Psychological Thriller, book one in the series, which I could not put down once I started reading.

Jessie Flynn is an army psychologist who gets assigned a very moving case where she must try to help Sami who is a very damaged four year-old. Whilst trying to help solve Sami's case and understand what he is going though Jessie gets drawn into a very dark family's past. As she uncovers more to the story Jessie is forced to re-live what happened to her own brother when she was only a teenager herself, struggling to keep her own emotions to herself and face her demons she begins to get really close to Sami.

I found myself drawn to Jessie and had to keep reading to see what happened next.

Just when I thought i could work out what would happen Kate Medina twisted the plot and pulled me down another path. Fire Damage has a very gripping ending which brought me very close to tears!

Well done Kate I look forward to the next book in this series.

The first book featuring Jessie Flynn a young psychologist who has psychological issues herself. The book starts with Sami a traumatised 4 year old boy who Dr Flynn tries to help. But it becomes a crime book involving Army personnel and dysfunctional families.

The story involves several characters who are in the Army and served in Afghanistan but it is not the main focus of the book, I don't like army stories so that would have put me off. It is mostly about relationships and families. But I don't want to say too much.

If this is not enough we also find out what happened to Dr Flynn, how she became a person with hardly any social life, a bad relationship with her parents and suffering from OCD.

The book is supposed to be 376 pages long but I basically read it in an afternoon, it flows very well. It has element of several genres including traditional crime, psychological thriller and more, with a rather cinematic ending. The characters are interesting and well defined, an interesting crime book which would work well for a journey. I would probably read another book with Jessie Flynn this rather dysfunctional psychologist.

What on the face of it looks like a standard crime novel, albeit set within the confines of the armed forces, proves to be much more a character driven study where all the main participants are in some way tainted by past events.

Psychologist Dr Jessie Flynn is trying to understand and break down the traumatic and delicate mind of 4 year old Sami. The child appears to be suffering a form of PTSD and Jessie becomes suspicious that perhaps his parents Scott (badly injured and disfigured during a tour of Afghanistan) and Nooria know more than they are prepared to divulge. At the same time Jessie's friend and former patient Captain Ben Callan is investigating the premature death of Sergeant Andy Jackson in the stifling desert heat of an Afghanistan autumn. Callan must also live each day with the consequences of war, he carries a bullet lodged in his brain too risky to surgically remove causing him to suffer frequent epileptic type fits. Meanwhile Inspector Bobby "Marilyn" Simmons (what a wonderful name to be associated with a rock legend!) has encountered his own difficulties, a badly decomposed body on the shore killed by severe blunt trauma to the back of the head

Sound complicated? It's not....The story and momentum gather pace until in the last few chapters all is revealed. I read at blistering speed but found it difficult to keep abreast of events and I urged on Jessie Flynn in her quest to help restore a sad and damaged Sami. What makes this a great read is the depth to which the author shows the emotional fallout present in all. Flynn is haunted by an event in her childhood in which she blames herself and has never recovered. This manifests itself in recurrent OCD....."straightening the sleeves. Taking a step back she checked their alignment, straightened again, millimetre by millimetre, until they were exactly level...." Ben Callan has a bullet embedded in his brain and cannot be removed due to fear of death...."Frontal lobe seizure is the official diagnosis . He tapped the scar on his temple. Caused by the bullet that the army surgeons decided was too risky to remove." Major Nicholas Scott, Intelligence Corps, badly burnt in Afghanistan three months previously....."the left side of his face was so badly burnt that the skin had melted, slid away from the bones underneath, leaving threads of brown, tortured tissue. Batman's Joker dropped into a vat of acid..."

This is not a story that is inundated with army rank and slang but rather a crime thriller where the main participant happens to be an army psychologist. It is the first in the start of a new series featuring Jessie Flynn and I look forward to reading the second when released later this year. Many thanks to the good people at netgalley for sending me a gratis copy of this superb story in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written.

The author has managed to find a write a unique story. Well written, good storyline with strong well-defined and realistic characters. The ending was a little confusing and rushed, but otherwise great. I'm looking forward to reading more from Kate Medina.

I loved this book from the begining to the end. I would have no problem recommending this book to anyone who likes this genre. I eagerly await book no 2. Jessie Flynn is a great character and loved the interaction with Callen.

Fire Damage is a new series featuring Dr. Jessie Flynn. Jessie is a military physiologist dealing with a very traumatized child whose father was severely injured in Afghanistan. The story is very multilayered and Dr. Flynn also is a complicated character. Gradually all the different incidents come together and makes for a very good story. Kate Medina's writing is amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Can't wait for No. 2.

Thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read this book.