It took me very little time to read this book, yet I started it the best part of three weeks ago. So many interruptions yet this book has kept me rapt.

I met Leah at the Perth Writers Festival where she was holding a class on writing nasty villains. In fairness it didn't matter which character it was in the book, every single one felt real. But this book wasn't just about the characters, it was also crime fiction with a brisk pace and a lot more going on than an arsonist causing trouble and mayhem.

So I really enjoyed this book and it stands as one of the better crime thrillers I've read. I'm really going to have to email Leah and find out when the next one is due for release. ( )

At the prophetically named upscale Sydney restaurant Indendie an elderly woman is dining with her son when she bursts into flames for no discernible reason. The restaurant’s manager, former cop Troy Berrigan, does his best to help but the woman later dies of her injuries. Other incidents which may, or may not, be connected start happening across the city. Jill Jackson is studying for her Master’s degree and is on vacation from her job as a Detective with the Police Force but is drawn into the investigation at first because her boyfriend is leading it and then because the case becomes personal.

Watch the World Burn is the perfect example of a suspenseful police procedural mixed with a psychological thriller. There were enough disparate threads to keep me interested in who has done what and what will be done next but not too many that I lost track. Some threads allowed me to build up a picture of intriguing characters while others offered momentary snapshots but all of them kept me turning pages. In fact the shorter passages, such as the one where a woman hands out leaflets on a train station before coming to a sticky end, are really superb short stories within the larger tale and I really enjoyed these vignettes. It’s hard to talk much more about the plot without giving away huge spoilers but there were not many moments in which the story took me where I thought it would and that is always a satisfying experience as a reader.

As I’ve found with all of the books in this series the characters also standout and demonstrate Giarratano’s eye for observation of human behaviour (she is a practicing clinical psychologist). Jill Jackson has had some pretty astonishing personal problems in her life (these are briefly recapped here for those who haven’t read the previous books) but as Watch the World Burn opens she is more confident and happier than she has been before and it’s nice to see this kind of character growth. Quite realistically though she is not ‘all better in an instant’ and the personal trauma that she experiences in this book does force her to deal with her psychological issues in a more structured way than she has in the past and this entire thread has a very credible feel to it. There are other deft creations too including a terrific middle-aged woman who uses humour to help her through her marriage break-up and Troy Berrigan who is also under pressure because he has guardianship of his younger siblings and struggles to maintain some control over their lives.

The one thing missing from this book that I’ve loved about the others was a detailed picture of the ‘bad guy’. Here we only get brief snapshots of the evil-doer which would usually be fine but I must admit to a somewhat guilty pleasure in reading Giarratano’s excellent dark characters in the past. Even so, it’s a thoroughly entertaining read with a nice mixture of action and reflection which will appeal to fans of the series and is also, I think, a great place to start for those new to the world of Jill Jackson. ( )

WATCH THE WORLD BURN was one of those books that I enjoyed more, the more I read. The opening "hook" was great though - an elderly woman bursts into flame, just when the manager, aboriginal ex-cop Troy Berrigan, was standing right next to her, but not looking at her.

WATCH THE WORLD BURN is full of intriguing little stories, starting with the one about why Troy Berrigan is no longer a cop. Then there is also the continuing story of Jill Jackson, the thread that connects all Giarratano's novels so far. And then the story of politician Erin Hart campaigning for the installation of CCTV in public places such as railway stations. Underpinning it all is the ongoing investigation into Miriam Caine's not-so-spontaneous combustion, and questions that elude answers.

This is a book that keeps the reader on their toes, testing out hypotheses. For me the final answer came out of left field, but then I could see that the clues had been there all along. ( )

I didn't recognise the name when I chose Watch The World Burn as a read for the Aussie Authors Challenge but as soon as I saw the authors image I realised that Leah Giarrantano was the presenter of Beyond the Darklands. This (Australian TV) crime doco series had Leah, a psychologist, discuss and disect the stories of notorious Australian killers. It was okay, I watched a fair few episodes but I didn't think it was much more than sound bites really and to be honest Leah's voice/tone was a little grating.Still I wasn't aware she had written any books so I was interested to read her work. Watch The World Burn is a comfortable blend of psychological thriller and police procedural. It is the fourth in a series with police officer Jill Jackson. I haven't read the previous installments though I don't feel it was much of a problem. Jill Jackson has obviously dealt with some serious cases previously and has her own long standing issues however the author shared enough of her history for me to be mostly satisfied. In this book, Jill is not central to the criminal investigation but is certainly an emotional focus for the story, still I think I would have preferred to read the earlier books though to be more invested in her character. Jill's separation from the case means Troy Berrigan, the ex-cop who becomes tangled in the Caine investigation, has an equally strong lead in the story. With such an equal split, this led to some division of my attention as their stories take a while to cross-over.The premise is quite interesting, however I felt the plot lacked depth. I thought the crime became more of a backdrop to the characters, the investigation seemed to skim the surface, with emotion overriding procedures. While I found Watch the World Burn a quick and easy read, it lacked the intensity I prefer in psychological crime fiction. Reviews seem to agree that previous books in the series are more insightful so I won't rule out picking one up should they be lurking on the shelves of my library. ( )

Clinical psychologist and best-selling author Leah Giarratano is known for exploring various criminal and/or psychological behaviours in all of her books, and in WATCH THE WORLD BURN, the fourth in the Sergeant Jill Jackson series, she's exploring family, along with extreme psychopathic behaviour. Whilst earlier books clearly demonstrate Giarratano's own background in her deft handling of the extremes of human behaviour, somehow, WATCH THE WORLD BURN is more assured, more informative, more affecting and profoundly unsettling.

Readers of the earlier books will know that Jill Jackson had an horrendous experience as a young girl - kidnapped, raped and tortured. Her ongoing battle to cope and move on is an underlying thread in all the books in this series, but in WATCH THE WORLD burn we see Jill put under the most extreme personal pressure and we watch as she completely falls apart, and starts to put herself back together again.

We also watch as a series of different sorts of families cope. Jill's family continue the struggle to support both of their daughters - both victims of Jill's childhood experience in their own ways. We also watch as a young Aboriginal ex-cop struggles to rebuild his life after he was shot, wounded, pushed from the force after he became a whistleblower. As the sole carer for his much younger brother and sister, Troy Berrigan has a family that was torn apart by so many of the problems in Aboriginal society, being put back together by their individual and collective strength. Then there is the family of Miriam Caine. Her son and granddaughter are pulled into Troy and Jill's circle after Miriam bursts into flames one night the very up-market restaurant that Troy manages, dying a painful and seemingly inexplicable death. Followed by a spate of seemingly unconnected acid and arson attacks around Sydney, the police investigation slowly weaves the stories of Jill, Troy and Miriam's families together.

Balanced well between the police investigation and the various personal stories, WATCH THE WORLD BURN quickly becomes an emotional rollercoaster, although don't for a moment think that means that the reader is left feeling manipulated or over-wrought. It's seering in its portrayal of desperation, pain, suffering, madness and hope. There's humour and great humanity here as well, there are strong and safe characters balancing out the damaged. And in creating a bad guy who is somewhat elusive Giarratano has created what seems to be a pitch perfect portrayal of a psychopath - distant, illogical, slightly out of focus even, but ultimately inexplicable.

Readers of Giarratano books need to be aware that they aren't going to be in for an easy read, but they are absolutely guaranteed to feel something. You may also learn something about the slender threads that some people balance on every day. But you cannot come away from WATCH THE WORLD BURN unaffected by the characters created, the pain that they feel, and the nature of nurture. ( )