Firestorm by Iris Johansen

When Kerry Murphy was a young girl a house fire killed her mother and left her in a coma for two years. Her experience gave her the ability to telepathically sense fires, and connect with fire victims. Her used her talent to become a firefighter, but after a friend died in a fire she was no longer able to bear the responsibility of fighting them day to day. She now works as an arson investigator and uses her dog Sam as a cover for her unique talent. She's proud of the life she's built for herself and considers herself at ease with her talent, but she has few close relationships and suffers from horrible nightmares.

Brad Silver has problems of his own. He saw his brother, a U.S. Senator, and sister-in-law burned alive in their limousine. They were the victims of a madman named James Trask. Trask had been the head of a secret government research project to create controlled firestorms. It wasn't until the project was canceled that anyone realized that Trask had become obsessed with his creation and by then it was too late to stop him. He's now an out of control pyromaniac, using his invention to blackmail the President. Trask has vowed that he won't stop killing government officials until his demands are met.

Like Kerry, Brad has special abilities. Unlike Kerry his skills don't center around fire. Instead Brad is able to act as a “controller” for others psychics. He feels that with his help Kerry could make a connection with Trask and help locate him before anyone else is killed. Kerry doesn't agree. He tells her that in exchange he can help her finally get over the loss of her mother. Kerry values her independence and wants nothing to do with Silver or any other psychics, so she initially refuses. However, when she inadvertently makes a connection with Trask he becomes obsessed with her and attacks her brother and his pregnant wife. In order to protect her family Kerry changes her mind and agrees to partner with Silver and the two of them race to stop Trask before he strikes again.


This was a psychological thriller with paranormal elements. On the positive side, the premise of this book was interesting and I basically liked the characters and their interaction. The one thing I did think was odd was the way Kerry kept giving Brad a hard time for being prickly. Considering what her personality was like I felt like that was a definite case of the pot calling the kettle black and that Silver should have called her on it.

On the negative side a fairly large chunk of the book was devoted to Trask's POV and I'm tired of that. These days it seems like almost every suspense and mystery book I read spends almost as much time inside the killer's head as that of the main character(s) and I'm over it. I have much more interest in how the mystery is solved than in getting the details of yet another fictional version of homicidal craziness.

Grade: B-

Will I read the next book in the series?: Yes. I'm interested enough in Kerry & Silver to try the next book.

Power Play by Joseph Finder

Jake Landry works as the chief assistant to the Executive Vice President of Hammond Air. Jake's job is to maintain order and facilitate communications between all the groups working to produce Hammond's latest plane, the H-880. His knowledge of planes and his problem-solving abilities make him a valuable employee, but he's still very low in the corporate pecking order. That suits Jake fine and he's happy to keep his head down and just do his job.

That all changes when Jake's boss has to make an emergency sales pitch to a key client and is unable to attend a critical executive off-site. Someone has to be available to answer questions about the H-880 and much to his chagrin Jake is that someone.

The prospect of spending four days doing team-building exercises with self-satisfied executives fills Jake with dread, but dealing with a group of men who each want to be the Alpha dog is soon the least of his problems. A group of armed men break into their isolated retreat and take them all hostage, demanding a half billion dollars in ransom. Jake knows that if the gunman get their money they'll have no further use for the hostages, so he draws on skills he learned before joining the corporate world to save himself and his coworkers.


I think is book would be classified as a corporate thriller. Books like this tend to follow a certain pattern. An "every man" gets caught up in a dangerous situation and has to use hidden talents to save the day. For me the success of this type of book depends on the overall quality of the writing, the likability of the hero and whether or not the details of the story are interesting and authentic. On that basis I thought Power Play was a solid effort.

Finder's writing is crisp and the plot moves along at a good pace. I liked Jake and was interested in his story. There was enough information about airplane construction to lend authenticity and interest, but not so much that the story bogged down. And the characterization of corporate executives was certainly spot on. I admit that, as a former corporate employee, I was entertained by the idea of an off-site turning into an actual life or death situation.

Grade: B