The Controlled Burn

De: Sela Cross

Narrado por: Dana Christie

A fire in the middle of the night changes everything.

When Vera wakes to the smell of smoke, she escapes her home just before the fire spreads. The damage is contained to one room: her husband Daniel’s study. Investigators quickly determine the fire wasn’t accidental.

Accelerant was used.

As the investigation begins, Detective Shea starts asking quiet, careful questions about Daniel, about the study, and about the life Vera has built inside their marriage.

Vera has answers.

But she also has something the police don’t know about.

For two years she has been keeping a private notebook—recording small incidents that never quite made sense. Late-night phone calls. Conversations that stopped when she entered the room. Tiny fractures in the carefully ordered life she shared with Daniel.

At first, it was just a way to cope with insomnia.

Then it became evidence.

Now the study is sealed, Daniel is returning home, and Vera must decide how much of the truth she is willing to reveal.

Because sometimes the most dangerous secrets are the ones that survive the fire.

The Controlled Burn is a psychological suspense novel about marriage, control, and the quiet ways power can reshape a life.

©2026 Sela Cross (P)2026 Sela Cross