Firestorm [Hardcover]

Iris Johansen (Author)

Book Description

Series: Johansen, Iris | Publication Date: March 30, 2004

#1 New York Times bestselling author Iris Johansen turns up the heat in this explosive new psychological thriller. This time a gifted arson investigator teams up with a mysterious operative to stop a killer raging completely out of control...

For Kerry Murphy, the inferno is never far away. The flames of that long-ago night still burn in her nightmares: the heat, the choking smoke, the helplessness. She can never run fast enough...

Now Kerry works as an arson investigator with her evidence-sniffing dog, Sam. Together they're a great team, but her life is about to change in the time it takes to strike a match. The deadly flames of her past are back, and from out of the ashes a stranger appears. Who is Silver? And why has he chosen her in the desparate race to find a killer determined to ignite hell on earth? Kerry and Silver may not have a chance against a psychopath as coldhearted as his method is red-hot. To save themselves and the innocent lives at stake, Kerry will have to do what she hoped she'd never have to do: fight fire with fire.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Arson investigator Kerry Murphy has a unique talent for sniffing out the cause of fires like the one that killed her mother years ago. She also has a secret, known only to the mysterious stranger named Silver, a "consultant" who needs her cooperation in stopping the psychopath who burned his brother alive and who's holding national security hostage to his own demented ego. Silver has an uncanny gift for getting under Kerry's skin, which is both the good and bad news--good because it doubles their chances of finding the man behind the terrifying weapon of the title, and bad because Kerry can't afford to be vulnerable to Silver or any other man. Johansen has written a taut thriller that's not quite as combustible as its title but one that will keep readers fired up enough to stick with it to the last page. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Two psychic firefighters confront a slew of dreadful deaths in this rip-roaring thriller by Johansen (Dead Aim, etc.). As a little girl, Kerry Murphy spent two years in a coma after losing her mother in a home fire. Kerry grows up to be a firefighter and then an arson specialist who uses her dog Sam as a cover for her remarkable psychic ability to telepathically sense fires. Kerry considers herself adjusted, at ease with her career and her talent, but she still suffers painful nightmares. Enter Brad Silver, who is also visited by terrible memories—he saw his older brother, a U.S. senator, and his brother's wife consumed by an explosion of fire as they stepped into their limousine. Like Kerry, Brad has psychic capabilities; in fact, he's known as a controller who can invade other people's minds. The president of the United States badly needs someone to locate and disarm a mad pyromaniac named James Trask, who was head of a scientific project funded by the Defense Department—until the project was scratched. Enraged, Trask disappeared and has begun to target his enemies with remote-controlled firestorms. Brad claims he can help Kerry come to terms with her mother's death if she will help him locate Trask. Fiercely independent Kerry demurs until the home of her beloved brother, Jason, is torched and his pregnant wife's longed-for baby dies. Trask himself blackmails Kerry into meeting him alone and her nascent relationship with Brad is sorely strained by her stubborn independence. Some of Johansen's plotting is far-fetched, but she ably captures the smell, the smoke and the terror of fire. This is a quick, easy read that just might increase the sale of fire extinguishers for the home.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1ST edition (March 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553803409
• ISBN-13: 978-0553803402
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,095,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Iris Johansen is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Pandora's Daughter, Stalemate, Killer Dreams, On the Run, and many more. She lives near Atlanta, Georgia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars arson investigator with psychic ability, April 12, 2004

By 

A. Christie "bibliofiend508" (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Firestorm (Hardcover)

Kerry Murphy works as a fire investigator with her dog, Sam. No one knows the real reason Kerry is so good at her job, and it isn't Sam's superior evidence-sniffing ability. When Kerry was a little girl, her mother died in a fire. As Kerry was running out of the house to get help, an unknown man hit her in the head with a metallic object. She was in a coma for two years and when she awoke she possessed a psychic talent which is triggered by fire.

Brad Silver is also with psychic abilities. He is able to invade other people's minds and control their thoughts. Brad is after the man who created Firestorm, a method of spontaneous combustion, the same man who killed his brother and sister-in-law. Brad needs Kerry's psychic ability to sense where and when fires will happen to catch this psychopath.

I usually don't like books of paranormal nature, but I was really drawn into this story. While the plot is not realistic, it is suspenseful. The characters have rather unique traits and are very likable. If you like your thrillers of a more gritty and realistic nature then this book is not for you. If you don't mind some unbelievable plot twists, and a bit of romantic suspense, then you will like this installment from Iris Johansen.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars LIKE CONSTANT BICKERING?, August 14, 2004

By 

E. Morales (Santa Barbara, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Firestorm (Hardcover)

If you enjoy reading dialog with an ongoing argument for over 300 pages, you'll like this book.

I am a big fan of Johansen, but I wanted to tell these characters to "go to their corners" every step of the way. Instead of their relationship adding to the dynamic of the story, it was such a distraction that I even gave up caring
what happened.

I won't stop reading her books, but this was a big disappointment.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What A Wallbanger!, October 15, 2004

By 

J. A. Hayes (Montana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Firestorm (Hardcover)

FloridaGirl has it right! Whiny, shallow, and terminally stupid heroine. I know any book premised on two psychics out there working together has a suspension-of-disbelief requirement, but after awhile the plotting got to be a bit much. George, the British-born (to parents in domestic service) ex-US Secret Service bodyguarding butler with CIA and FBI contacts everywhere; Carmela and Rosa, who with federal arm-twisting can be removed from a mother who won't protect them from abuse in the home and given to the heroine at the end of the book as sort of live-in domestic therapy; Trask, our evil-villain arsonist, who, while evading the forces of the US government could use his North-Korean-supplied US henchman to track down all sorts of information about our heroine's background and family, and who regrets that he won't have enough time available to explore the fact that he considers the heroine his soulmate before he has to kill her; and Silver (as in Hiyo?), who falls in love with the heroine for no earthly reason I could see, since she's an idiot and has been a complete b**ch to him, but because they're psychically linked, and he's really lonely, they have mind-blowing sex. Her father's rationale for the nature of his relationship with Kerry and his son Jason made absolutely no sense to me. And cliches? They're everywhere, so watch where you step. What a disappointment!