7/15/2022

White Hot by Sandra Brown

One of the best books Sandra Brown has ever written if you ask me. A hot and opulent family drama of murder, passion, hatred, and revenge takes place against the beautiful summer backdrop of Louisiana. The cover may not thrill you, but the story itself just rocks. The author presents a setting as hot and fascinating as the book content is. A recommendable thriller that became a bestseller for a reason.

White Hot

by Sandra Brown
Publisher Simon & Schuster on August 17, 2004
Genre Thriller
Pages 419
Format Hardcover
Goodreads
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She had refused to take his call. No more contact with her family, no more going back to Destiny, Louisiana! Now Sayre Hoyle is standing at her youngest brother's grave. When the police speak of murder, they suspect that the killer is from their own family. Sayre seeks the truth, even against the wishes of Beck Merchant, the family lawyer. A man whose fascinating charisma attracts Sayre with the power of a magnet - and a man with plans of his own. Desiring him is foolish. But trusting him is deadly...

Story

Sayre Hoyle, the only daughter of Huff Hoyle, has returned home from San Francisco to bury her younger brother Danny. She wanted to go back to San Francisco immediately after the funeral, but when she heard the police suspect her brother might have been murdered, she was horrified. Sayre stays in Destiny to do some research on her own. Her father, Huff, doesn't like it at all, so not only does she have to contend with his power, web of corruption, aggression, and manipulative influence in the community, but she also must contend with his efforts to regain control of her. But Sayre will not be intimidated or stopped, much less dissuaded from her views and attitudes. Her family's modus operandi is all too familiar to her: tyrannical behavior, violence, and the relentless cold-blooded and iron grip of the Steel Foundry over the site of Destiny, the private domain of King Huff Hoyle. Sayre shows that she, too, excels at these, if need be, with the same coldness and ruthless determination as the rest of the Hoyle’s. Undeterred, she goes her own way, facing Huff with the same stubbornness, arrogance, and strength he did her. Her relentlessness fuels both the town and the family business, Hoyle Enterprises. When a bloody accident and another death ensues, the situation explodes into a merciless struggle of past crimes, age-old hatred, and freezing revenge. As the story progresses, Sayre's stubbornness brings a gruesome truth to light, which demands much suffering and even more bloodshed, and in the end not only ends fatally for another person but also destroys a lifelong dream.

Style

Sandra Brown beautifully uses many pictorial comparisons, allowing the reader to use their own imagination to get a wonderful picture of the scene. The author not only shows the thoughts and perspective of the protagonist Sayre Hoyle, but also the sometimes-amazing backgrounds of some other characters such as Huff Hoyle or Beck Merchant as the story progresses. The author has skillfully combined a successful mixture of eroticism, passion, thrills, and motifs. She has given each of her characters the language that suits them, and with her incomparable masterful style, Sandra Brown's dialogues are open, direct, and bordering on obscenity, which fits perfectly into the plot.

Characters

Sandra Brown has endowed her characters with an unusual depth and range of emotions, from the protagonist Sayre Hoyle to the smallest supporting character. It's a delight to watch her main character work her way through hate, revenge, and pain while fighting against her family's legacy, yet being unable to deny it. The character of Beck Merchant also has feelings and thoughts that I didn't expect and that often surprised me. Oftentimes, the characters of "Incandescent" know more than the reader does, which makes the plot incredibly exciting and turning the pages a pure thrill.

Conclusion

A first-class Southern drama set in the muggy, hot summer setting of Louisiana, which grips the reader with a murderously cruel, manipulative, and yet the soulful family story and sweeps them along from the first to the last line. Read!

Happy reading

Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown is the author of seventy New York Times bestsellers. Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published over seventy-five novels. Bringing the number of copies of her books in print worldwide to over eighty million. Her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. A lifelong Texan, Sandra Brown was born in Waco, grew up in Fort Worth, and attended Texas Christian University, majoring in English. She is much in demand as a speaker and guest television hostess. Her episode on truTV´s Murder by the Book premiered the series in 2008. She appeared in 2010 on Investigation Discovery´s new series, Hardcover Mysteries. In 2009 Brown detoured from her thrillers to write Rainwater, a much acclaimed powerfully moving story about honor and sacrifice during the Great Depression. Brown holds an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Texas Christian University where she and her husband Michael Brown, have instituted the ELF, a scholarship annually awarded to a student pursuing a fiction-writing career. In 2008, she was named Thriller Master, the top award given by the International Thriller Writer´s Association. Other awards and commendations include the 2007 Texas Medal of Arts Award for Literature and the Romance Writers of America´s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2011 she and four colleagues went on a week-long USO tour to Afghanistan, meeting with service members on numerous bases. Sandra is the past president of the Mystery Writers of America in 2012. She lives in Arlington, Texas, with her husband, Michael Brown.

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