Burn Out is the first in the Rachel Scott series. Rachel runs Florida Omni Search which she founded following the kidnapping of her own daughter, Mallory. This organisation looks for missing people, on this occasion Samantha, a young married woman with two daughters who is a fire fighter. She has gone missing during a blaze, with the only trace of her being her helmet left in the parking lot.
I preferred this book to Asylum Harbor, the second Rachel Scott book. This story was much more evenly paced rather than the frenetic action in the other book, particularly towards the climax which stretched credibility. In this book the chapters are headed with a timeline - date and time, so that the reader is in no doubt as to the time scale the action is taking place in. This would have helped a lot with Asylum Harbor.
Some of the tension is taken out of this tale as it is quite clear whodunit in the first half of the book. However, the interest then switches to how, and possibly if, Sam is going to be rescued. At the end there are one or two loose ends left for the author to pick up in the future. This is very short - about 180 pages - and most readers will get through it very quickly, particularly as the chapters are very short which keeps you reading. Overall an interesting story, and fairly light reading.
