I would like to thank the HarperCollins and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Fire Damage by Kate Medina in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
Dr Jessie Flynn works for the Defence Psychology Service and although she normally deals with adults she is asked to see Sami the four-year-old son of Major Nicholas Scott, badly injured in Afghanistan, and his wife Nooria an accomplished artist.
Sami is deeply traumatised, plays with his doll Baby Isabel and keeps a heavy Maglite torch close to him. During their meetings Sami talks about ‘The Shadowman’ and continually says ‘The girl knows, the boy is bad, the girl is good …’.
Jessie meets up with her former patient, Captain Ben Callan, who was himself injured in Afghanistan and who is investigating the suspicious death of an officer. Ben asks Jessie to meet the suspect, Colin Starkey, who won’t talk about what happened.
This novel which I found different to normal police crime thrillers was gripping and kept me enthralled throughout. It was well-written with engaging characters and an interesting plot. As it’s the first in a series I look forward to reading more of Jessie Flynn.

Jessie Flynn is an army psychologist tasked with counselling a traumatised four-year-old boy, Sami. She finds his parents very uncooperative but is drawn to Sami and he is a very likeable charachter. He carried a torch round with him and he clings to it for his life and is petrified of the shadowman.

Jessie also gets a call from a former patient who is investigating a mysterious death that took place in Afghanistan and wants her to give her opinion, even though her caseload is full she does want to help and then wishes she hadn't.

Jessie has her own demons to settle too and you sometimes wonder if she shouldn't be the patient in all this.

I enjoyed reading Fire Damage, the story was well written with lots of great characters and the promise of romance between two of the main ones.