Pyro

July 5, 2004
A renegade in a stiff, uncaring fire department is the hero of this thriller by the author of 11 Thomas Black detective mysteries and two other firefighter novels (Vertical Burn
; Into the Inferno
). When Paul Wollf was 10, he and his older brother, Neil, killed the man who murdered their mother. Now, 19 years later, Neil is still in prison and Wollf is a lieutenant with the Seattle Fire Department. Wollf is a tormented and guilt-ridden man: a hot-shot risk taker with a violent, uncontrollable temper. The department brass want to fire him, but can't figure out how to can a hero. The complications get even hotter when Wolff's district is plagued by arson fires similar to the one that killed his firefighter father 25 years before. Wollf is too tired and too busy to see the connection until an ambush fire nearly kills him and his ladder crew. Then he realizes he is facing a pyromaniac, and suddenly everyone he knows is a suspect. Tight descriptions of fire department politics, petty bickering, professional jealousies and dangerous bureaucratic paralysis give Emerson's tale extra heft. Here's a fast-paced, smoke-filled, gripping story loaded with plot twists, snappy and graphic dialogue, and firefighting lore. Agent, Meg Ruley. 5-city author tour.
(Aug.)

FYI
:
Emerson is a lieutenant in the Seattle Fire Department and a Shamus Award–winning author.

April 1, 2004
Lt. Paul Wollf, who lost his firefighter dad to arson, watches uneasily as Seattle's latest blaze setter strikes closer and closer to his own station. From a Shamus Award winner and Seattle Fire Department lieutenant.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2004
A rash of arsons in Seattle's Central District pits Lieutenant Paul Wolff against the craven pyromaniac who just may have been responsible for the death of his father, also a fireman, years ago. More distressing than the pyro, a puerile cross-dressing perv who tells his own inarticulate tale, are the various ineffectual, corrupt, and malign authority figures who repeatedly lose their cool in the heat of battle. Much of this illwill lands on Cynthia Rideout, the rookie firefighter who watches as the lone Wolff, haunted by a violent past and troubled with fits of homicidal rage, wavers between hero and antihero. The roving viewpoint fails to add much psychological depth to workaday prose ("You're a barely controlled volcano, aren't you?" asks the love interest), but fresh alarms keep the action racing toward the final conflagration. With plenty of interesting background detail, Seattle firefighter Emerson's third stand-alone thriller reads like James Patterson decked out in fire gear and should appeal to a wide swath of suspense fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)