She Treads Softly: Burning State

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Burning State

Burning State by Rob Sinclair
12/8/25; 384 pages
Boldwood Books
James Ryker #14

Burning State by Rob Sinclair is recommended - for the right reader. James Ryker, former intelligence agent, is sent to Atlanta, Georgia, to find a missing governor's daughter. When bombs begin going off in buildings, Ryker ends up pursuing an old adversary, ex-special ops agent Caleb Marshall. Marshal was presumed dead, but now he is out for vengeance.

This features nonstop action and an abundance of violence. The conspiracy is huge so the stakes are equally high as Marshall is trying to destroy the USA. I haven't read the other books in this series, but after reading Burning State I felt I should have listened to myself after the last Sinclair novel and avoided reading another one. It's too violent and over-the-top. Additionally, Sinclair has made up some "radical right-wing factions" as the enemy in this outing. At this point, I can't even try to set the needed amount of disbelief aside in the current climate to accept this plot point as it is totally unbelievable. 2.5 for me, rounded up.

Thanks to Boldwood for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.