After the Fire [Paperback]

Karen Campbell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2011

Someone is dead because of Jamie. Yesterday they were alive. When we woke up yesterday and argued about how many pairs of shoes I could take, that person was alive, making coffee maybe. Scratching her arm or yawning in the mirror...Newly qualified as a firearms officer, Jamie Worth is called to a domestic disturbance. Events get out of hand, and he shoots and kills a teenaged girl who appears to have been unarmed. Already wracked with guilt, he is horrified when, with the media baying for blood, he is accused of murder. How can a cop survive in prison, when he suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of the law? And how can his wife Cath and ex-lover Anna come to terms with what has happened? From the author of THE TWILIGHT TIME, AFTER THE FIRE is a chilling glimpse of the flipside of life as a law enforcer, written in 'stiletto-sharp prose' (The Herald) by one of the most exciting new voices in crime fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Constable Jamie Worth, a newly qualified Strathclyde firearms officer, views himself as a John Wayne sharpshooter with a Glasgow swagger, but after he shoots Sarah Brisbane, an unarmed teenager fleeing a domestic disturbance, his life and the lives of his wife, Cath, and their children, devolve into chaos in this searing sequel to Campbell's The Twilight Time. Jamie's marriage was already strained by an affair with Insp. Anna Cameron, a former associate who becomes a U.K. representative on the U.N.'s Police and Justice Task Force for three months in New York. After failing to secure a long-term appointment, Anna returns to Glasgow only to learn of Jamie's murder conviction. Despite their mutual distaste, Anna and Cath join forces to prove Jamie's innocence. Campbell deftly explores the horrifying repercussions of a botched investigation and a miscarriage of justice. The heart-wrenching portrait of Sarah, who was caught in a nasty web of family abuse, adds to the book's power. (Feb.)
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Review

"Searing . . . Campbell deftly explores the horrifying repercussions of a botched investigation and a miscarriage of justice."  —Publishers Weekly

"It's difficult to convey precisely what makes reading After The Fire so gripping. . . . Bigger than the sum of its parts, and transcending its thriller label, this is a canvas of human nature, of "finding grace in tiny things", of love and loss and heartbreak and how ordinary people recover after the fire."  —Scotland on Sunday

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (September 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340935626
• ISBN-13: 978-0340935620
• Product Dimensions: 1.2 x 5 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,264,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gritty and gut-wrenchingly real!, April 20, 2009

By 

Big Bertha (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After the Fire (Hardcover)

Jamie Worth is a newly qualified Firearms Officer with Glasgow police when he gets a shout to an incident in a south side tenement. At the scene he finds a young inexperienced Inspector and with no tactical firearms advisors available is left to go in with just one other firearms officer. In a scene that is tense, fraught with confusion and lacking control a young girl is shot dead, by Jamie.

Suddenly propelled into the media glare and with the public baying for blood, Jamie and his family face the harsh reality as the system turns against him, the colleagues he thought he could trust one by one turn their backs on him, the force he saw as his family hang him out to dry and he gets sentenced and sent to Barlinnie prison where the jungle drums have been beating and the inmates are waiting for him.

This story is not just about Jamie, its also about his wife Cath and his two small children who find themselves isolated with none of the protection they've been used to. Cath is the true heroine of this story; she is already haunted by Jamie's previous extra-marital liaison with Inspector Anna Cameron and as his trial approaches she has to cope with his downward spiral into despair and his inability to fight back, at the same time trying to protect their two young children from the backlash, the gossip and the media.

What made this book for me was the authors characterisation, the relationships, the tension and the realism that just jumps off the pages at you. The confusion at the scene of the shooting when Jamie makes that split-second decision and fires, Caths utter devastation as the system they'd grown to rely on turns its back on her and her family, it all comes together to make a truly compelling novel.

This book is gritty and gut-wrenchingly real but amongst the darkness there are also glimmers of real humour that shine through.

This is Karen Campbells second novel featuring the same characters but its not essential to read 'The Twilight Time' first to enjoy this one (although I must admit I was so taken with this one I did buy the previous one whilst reading it)