Vertical Burn

May 6, 2002
Seattle fireman Emerson, of Shamus Award–winning Thomas Black detective series fame, returns with his 12th novel—a tale of arson, intrigue and sublimated rivalries among Seattle firefighters. John Finney, son of a retired fire chief and brother of a 21-year veteran, is haunted by the fire that killed one of his colleagues and placed him under departmental suspicion. Finney thinks the fire was arson, but can't prove it—until two other fires erupt under even more suspicious circumstances, killing another one of his partners. In short order, the mistrust of Finney's colleagues flares dangerously close to criminal prosecution, while a mysterious rogue fire engine tries to run him down. Finney starts up his own investigation of the fires, and even manages to spark up a romance with Diana Moore, the department's only female firefighter. But when Finney's amateur sleuthing turns up a crooked business tycoon and an arson insurance scam involving Seattle's tallest tower, Emerson turns up the heat. The novel is, as expected, long on details of firefighting and its incipient hazards, though there is little mention of the real and enduring conflicts between the investigative arm of firefighters and law enforcement. Newcomers to Emerson's work who enjoy thrillers like Suzanne Chazin's The Fourth Angel
should find little to complain about; as an example of the genre, however, in plotting and dialogue ("I ain't seen nothing but this goddamn smoke. Thought maybe my first wife was in there cooking dinner.") this is at best a two-alarmer. Major ad/promo; 10-city author tour.

January 1, 2002
This latest from the Shamus Award- winning Emerson, a lieutenant with the Seattle Fire Department, tracks the fall from grace of a highly regarded firefighter.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2002
One day, life is dandy for John Finney, who, like the author, is a veteran of Seattle's fire department. The next day he loses his friend and partner in a fire he suspects was set, and shortly after that he is being framed for arson and targeted for murder by conspirators who are planning to burn down the city's tallest building. Nobody can dig a hole for his protagonists any faster or deeper than Emerson, whose two series--starring private eye Thomas Black and firefighter-detective Mac Fontana, respectively--both feature heroes with enough moxie to extricate themselves in ingenious ways from whatever pit into which they are thrown. Here Emerson combines an intimate knowledge of fires and fire fighting with an intricate plot played out by characters you can love or hate. It's a thriller that delivers on thrills.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)