The first book in the Plague Trilogy leaps out of the gates and takes you straight into the middle of anarchy and chaos. It's a new and frightening reality that no one knows how the 'sweats' came to be released upon the world population. Every day from herein is going to get worse.

As one of the many kinds of apocalypse fiction writers can explore, the prospect of biological contamination/warfare is perhaps the most frightening to contemplate as is it would be the most easily realized today. Just a few errors, a few viral adaptations and the whole world goes to hell in a very short space of time. A LOVELY WAY TO BURN takes this prospect to the micro scale of just one person, Stevie Flint and runs with her as she fights to stay ahead of the pandemic and keep herself alive after the loss of her partner.

It's a gripping read, just this side of the "could be" to be completely terrifying. The details of the virus are sketchy so if you are looking for a large scale conspiracist book all about the evil government, you are not going to find that here. The book does falter in that the main character Stevie Flint does do some extremely stupid things, and if she's trying to stay alive, she needs to be a bit more tactical in her decisions and in particular be more careful of what environments she is putting herself into.

Over all, compelling and personal; it's that personal touch that is often lacking from pandemic/zombie novels and Welsh narrows our focus sharply and keenly to that of her lead. More a murder mystery than a pandemic novel perhaps. but its a very interesting start to a new series.