‘Bonfire’ by Iona Hepburn

Published by Allison & Busby,

22, October 2026.
ISBN: 978-0-74903436-8 (HB)

The Lewes Bonfire is a landmark event each November 5^th. Six Bonfire Societies compete good-naturedly for an audience, each with its own traditions and costumes, and dozens of torchlit fancy-dress processions move through the town accompanied by marching bands and crowds of people. It's a huge event, with food stalls, charity collections and seventeen burning crosses to commemorate the seventeen Protestant martyrs burnt at the stake in Lewes during the reign of Bloody Mary. 

It's noisy, crowded and chaotic, but usually good-humoured and well-meaning – so when newly promoted DCI Holly Hennessy is presented with a barrel containing the half-burnt body of a young woman, it goes against the entire ethos of the occasion. 

For Holly it gets worse. The same evening, she comes face to face with her nemesis, Kyra Ford, now a prominent academic and presenter of television documentaries, and a witness to the crime. In their schooldays they began as best friends, but Holly blew their closeness apart with a betrayal that almost destroyed Kyra. Holly has regretted it ever since but has never had the opportunity to put things right. Until now. 

Holly is made SIO of the investigation into the young woman's death and soon finds herself embroiled in the murky and secretive world of online gaming. Lily, the young woman, was a gamer, and at university studying to make both playing and designing online games her career. There is a strong connection with one of the Bonfire Societies, and Holly finds they are as close-mouthed about their activities as the Freemasons. 

And then there's Kyra... 

As the investigation progresses Holly finds herself up against one obstacle after another. It doesn't help that the power struggles she encounters include one very close to home; one member of the team is a resentful DI who thinks he should have been given the promotion awarded to Holly, and he has supporters among the junior ranks.  

It's hard to believe that this is Iona Hepburn's debut novel. She has created a cast of diverse characters with meticulous care, from Holly herself, striving to appear self-possessed and capable but underneath a mass of contradictions and uncertainties, to fey Natasha Ferdinand, hostile and disruptive DI Devlin, and Josh, a rich young dilettante film producer. There's also Ian, Holly's amiable partner, and his engaging son Joe; Margot, her spiky but supportive boss. And of course, Kyra, who has survived their teenage rift far better than Holly from an emotional point of view. And a host of other players, all sharply drawn and individual. 

Holly is faced with an almost impossible task, and at the same time needs to deal with her own private life –   her conflicted feelings, both for Ian and Joe, and for Kyra, and how whatever conclusion he reaches will affect her wider family. 

More power to Iona Hepburn for keeping a firm hold on all these threads and ensuring they don't break as she gets to the bottom of the murders. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of DCI Holly Hennessy.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick 

Iona Hepburn is an ICU doctor who has worked in Lewes, taught at Sussex University, and now lives in Brighton with her wife and daughter. She likens her medical career to that of police detectives in their shared sense of humanity and overfamiliarity with death. Bonfire is her debut novel. 

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.