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James O. Born's first three books --- WALKING MONEY, SHOCK WAVE and ESCAPE CLAUSE --- featured Bill Tasker, a believable Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent in a series informed by Born's own FDLE experiences and the two-legged fauna that haunt the dark edges of the South Florida underworld. But none of Born's prior works (as uniformly great as they are) will prepare readers for FIELD OF FIRE, wherein Born breaks his own mold and begins again, with spectacular results.
FIELD OF FIRE is a bit disconcerting at first, but in a good, even excellent, way. The source of initial unease is Alex "Rocket" Duarte, a South Florida ATF agent who doesn't drink or smoke and will carry a firearm only with the greatest reluctance. Duarte is inordinately good looking but extremely slow on the uptake with the ladies, independent but living with his parents; he is a bit unsettling at first, but ultimately believable, given that to some degree we all know people like this. Duarte is like a character encountered in some wonderful collaboration between T. Jefferson Parker and Elmore Leonard.
The story is set against the insane backdrop of Broward County, in the streets, alleys and shops that are blocks removed from the sand and sun and frat-boy conviviality that deceptively rules the beachfront property. Duarte, gradually reacclimating himself to South Florida after a military tour of Bosnia, is hunting Alberto Salez, a gunrunner who is inordinately lucky and, unbeknownst to Duarte, as coldly vicious and homicidal as one can imagine. Duarte is also unaware that Mike Garretti, an explosives expert with an odd, unexpected tie to Duarte, is after Salez as well.
When one of Garretti's explosive efforts to eliminate Salez goes horribly wrong, the U.S. Attorney's office gets involved in the persona of Caren Larson, who has been dispatched by her Washington boss to see if there is any connection between the South Florida bombing and similar incidents in Virginia and Seattle. Larson is immediately attracted to Duarte; her gentle persistence, matched against his snail-like uptake, makes for some interesting reading as the two of them gradually uncover a scheme that leads somewhat uncomfortably back to one of them.
While the plot is more than enough to keep the pages turning, it is Born's ability to create off-the-wall yet believable characters that makes the book worth reading. Perhaps the main one of these is Duarte's father, a plumber who dispatches quiet, terse wisdom across the dinner table and who ultimately provides the key that Duarte and Larson need to blow their case open.
It is Duarte, however, who is the star of FIELD OF FIRE, and his instinct on when to follow and when to ignore the rules makes for intriguing reading. Similarly, Garretti, while no angel, is not all bad here either, and the rough and uneasy similarity between Garretti and Duarte creates some interesting, if unusual, chemistry. The result is a novel that, with Born's already impressive backlist, exponentially will increase his presence on the A-list of thriller fans everywhere.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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