The contact, if any, that the majority of folks have with firemen is limited. Unless one needs emergency treatment, or a hapless male sets fire to his kitchen on Thanksgiving morning while preparing the holiday dinner, one might live their entire lives without coming into direct contact with fire department personnel, basically faceless people who fight fires and, for the most part, go home at the end of the shift. That perception, inaccurate to begin with, changed dramatically following the attack upon The World Trade Center. Contemporaneous films of the rescue attempts at Ground Zero, showing firefighters with fear in their eyes nonetheless marching resolutely into the buildings that would become the instruments of their passing, will never be forgotten by anyone who watched them.
The view of any city's Best and Bravest is examined with even more clarity by Earl Emerson in VERTICAL BURN. Emerson is a quarter-century veteran of the Seattle Fire Department. VERTICAL BURN is by no means his first novel, being preceded by an impressive list that includes 11 previous detective novels featuring his Thomas Black protagonist. VERTICAL BURN, however, is particularly memorable, and not simply in light of the terrorist attacks. Emerson takes his readers into the middle of the fire --- and if you're under the impression that these people just hold a hose on a fire until it goes out, think again.
VERTICAL BURN is told from the viewpoint of John Finney, who, like Emerson, is a veteran of the Seattle Police Department. Finney's career with the department is on an upward trajectory until a fateful evening when his Station 10 answers a warehouse fire call at Leary Way, which ends tragically with the death of a fellow firefighter. While an inquiry into the incident does not place blame for the death on Finney, it doesn't exonerate him, either, and ultimately, effectively results in the denial of his promotion. Or so it would seem. The official account of what happened is at odds with what Finney remembers as having taken place; there also seem to be too many fires occurring at the same time in the city to be coincidental. Finney continues to press for further investigation, but when a fire breaks out in an abandoned house and Finney is fingered, incredibly, as the arsonist, it becomes clear to him that there is a conspiracy against him. Finney is left with no doubts when an attempt is made on his life. Left with a dwindling number of allies, Finney's only hope is to find out who is behind the actions against him and the fire department, and their motives. Meanwhile, however, the city continues to burn...
Emerson's writes in a no-nonsense style that rings true-to-life; if anyone would know the territory covered in VERTICAL BURN, it would be Emerson. You won't hear a fire engine siren again without thinking of Finney, and Seattle, after reading this one.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.
© Copyright 1996-2009, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
