Customer Reviews

Firestorm

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

As a child Kerry Murphy and her mother were in their brownstone when their home caught fire but only Kerry made it out alive. She was in a coma for more than a year and as the years past the precognitive powers she woke up with became stronger. Her particular skill was catching arsonists because when she was at the scene, she was able to psychically see what the criminal did; she often helped the police catch the perpetrator.

Brad Silver saw his brother and his sister-in-law die in a car that spontaneously combusted thanks to FIRESTORM, a black ops weapon of mass destruction. Trask intends to sell the weapon to a foreign buyer but before he does, he wants to kill the scientists and the politicians who opposed the existence of the weapon. Silver, a high level telepathic, coerces Kerry into helping him track down the man who killed his brother and who could plunge the world into Armageddon. While working together, these two independent, tough minded individuals find that they are linked together by more than just a common cause.

Iris Johansen has written another exciting thriller that will land on the New York Times Bestseller list. The two protagonists find time in between murder and mayhem to fall in love but Kerry is afraid that loving Silver will mean giving up her independence. It takes a tragedy to show her how wrong she is but readers will adore her and her phony arson dog Sam because both have plenty of heart.

Harriet Klausner

What do you get when you cross a vintage Stephen King psychological horror tale with Thomas Harris' Hannibal and toss in a frightening, destructive weapon right out of a Tom Clancy techno-thriller? You bet - Firestorm! And this one succeeds from first to last.

As a child, Kerry Murphy spends two years in a coma after barely surviving the inferno that killed her mother and when she awakes she discovers that she has the psychic ability to sense fires. Brad Silver, a psychic "controller" knows that these abilities are the real reason for her success working as an arson investigator with her partner and dog, Sam. He needs Murphy's help in tracking down James Trask, a rogue scientist about to pass on his Firestorm technology, remote controlled high temperature accelerated arson, to the North Korean government.

Johansen's descriptions of Murphy's psychic forays into Trask's mind as a young man are creepy, frightening, yet truly compelling reading. Witnessing Trask as a young man and a brilliant student evolving into a psychotic serial arsonist and ruthless killer is eerie and will have you turning the pages well into the wee hours. At the same time as the story rolls towards its exciting climax and Murphy's final conflict with Trask, we are party to her falling in love with Silver and witnessing the endearing "adoption" of Carmela Ruiz and her sister, Rosa, near victims of Trask's plots. Far from detracting from the story, these heartwarming sub-plots are integral to its development and are meshed into it absolutely seamlessly.

Two thumbs up and an unequivocal recommendation to any reader that enjoys suspense thrillers!

The premise is interesting as are some of the characters, but you won't like it unless you enjoy identifying with a weak, pessimistic, whiny protagonist who spends most of the story agonizing in inner turmoil or arguing defensively with other characters, coming off overall like a rebellious teenager (she's supposed to be a capable adult!). Then there's the writing. I had to hold my nose, some of it was so bad. The hyphenate "cliché-ridden" would have been coined for this book if it hadn't existed already. "Repetitive" is another adjective that comes to mind. The two main characters have the same argument over and OVER again. And I was about to scream the 5th time I read, "She moistened her lips," (which the author often had the main character do right before she spoke.) Little did I know she would be moistening her lips MANY more times before the book ended, leaving me with the overwhelming impression of a defensive, fretting, saliva smearing, whiner who I actually wished would die in the end. No such luck!

Some people feel as if they can get into other's heads or that someone can get into their head. Kerry Murphy feels the same way. Since Kerry woke up from a coma when she was little, she has been experiencing visions of fires that have happened before. She can do this by being in the ruins of the fire. One day, Kerry had a terrible vision in which her friend Charlie, the firefighter, is trapped in a fire and can't get out. He soon dies. As Kerry is going through this mental torture, Brad Silver comes to help. He turns her visions of Charlie dying in the terrible fire into a calm scene by the lake. She soon realizes afterward that he has powers too. Silver has the ability to get into other people's heads and change or manipulate what they are thinking. Later she is told that Silver needed her help to sense when and where fires were to start to catch a psychopath, Trask. Trask had helped the government develop Firestorm, a device that made fires spontaneously. When the government refused to continue the research and told the few scientists working on the project that they were going to burn down the building and research, Trask got upset so he told a girl who he worked with and loved to go into the building and get the research she died in the fire and Trask got away with the research. He continued to study into the project and managed to complete Firestorm by himself. Now he was using it for revenge to tie up a few loose ends right before he was planning on selling it to foreigners. Kerry and Silver were on a mission to stop Trask before he went to far. All along the way as they were chasing him, Silver helped teach Kerry how to get into Trask's head and manipulate his thoughts and he had also helped her find her mothers killer, which she had blocked out of her mind after she came out of the coma. Trask had got Kerry to meet him at and old house in the country by threatening her with the lives of her brother and her father. Kerry decided it was now or never to try to get into Trask's mind. She tried for a couple of never ending minutes and the finally got into his mind. She manipulated him to going outside to the point where Silver had a good shot on him. Kerry and Brad had stopped Trask from causing a lot of trouble. This is a great book for people who like to read books in a modern environment, but with a few psychic powers.
Firestorm has unnatural abilities in a realistic environment. Kerry uses her powers to find the causes of fires. It helps her a lot with her job as an arson specialist even though she gives the credit to her dumb as a doorknob dog, Sam. The neighborhoods and the environment of the story are real because it happens in modern day, with normal people with out psychic powers. Even in the book where there are super powers, they are small. They people are in a small, unknown group and they are more afraid of the opinion of the public then trying to be super hero like.
Firestorm is good because it has complex characters. Kerry is confident, strong, and brave. She shows no signs of vulnerability to anyone no matter the circumstance. That is until Silver broke the tough outer shell of her personality. Silver is also confident and outgoing, but he still has a soft spot. All when Trask was growing up, he was a perfect, innocent kid who did nothing wrong on the outside, but on the inside he was a twisted freak. As he grew up, he became worse as his personality began to show on the outside.
For the all the psychic powers and the powerful machines, the supernatural is made to blend in with the natural environment. First, Firestorm was a powerful piece of equipment which was used for evil, but in a suttle way. Trask only used it for revenge before he tried to sell it, not trying to destroy the world. The psychic powers of Kerry are very suttle because she hides them with her job and Sam. The psychic powers of Silver are more powerful because he can change people's thoughts, but he still didn't use them for bad. He used them only to help other people who were having mental problems because of their powers.
Firestorm by Iris Johansen is a great book for many people who love the chase and thrill of mysteries and enjoy the slight romance. This book is recommended for all people who love to get sucked into a book to the point where they can't get out until the finished. When reading this book you feel a sense of thrill and adventure while at the same time, you feel sympathy for the characters, good and bad. This is even a book that the non-readers would like. A. Elliott

Johansen has never been stellar at developing plausible plots, but there is plausible, even in the realm of science fiction, and stoopid. This almost rates three "o"s

Seriously, borrow it from your library. Or buy it used. Or wait until the paperback comes out and buy IT used.

Kerry Murphy is one of Atlanta's best arson investigators, but most people think it's because of her evidence-sniffing dog, Sam, but this isn't the case. After surviving an attack by an arsonist who killed her mother and put her in a coma for two years, Murphy awoke with a new power. She has become a fire psychic, who has the ability to "see" the details of the fire and even get into the minds of the person who set them. Only a few know her secret so she was suprised when she is approached by Brad Silver to help catch a rather nasty arsonist. This arsonist, named Trask, formerly worked on a government-sponsored project called "Firestorm" where a fire can be started by transforming the molecules of a specific target causing them to burst into flames simply using a remote control. When the project was dismantled, Trask started on a killing spree, seeking not only revenge for ending his project, but to keep his former co-workers from sharing his "child." Also, Murphy discovers that Silver is a psychic as well, but his powers are more potent than even Murphy wants to imagine.

I've read a number of Johansen's books and this one is just as good as the rest. It's a good read, not too heavy, and a touch of romance as well. It's definitely a "chick book" but all of her books are.

This is my first Iris Johansen book, and I chose Firestorm because it had a paranormal flair to it. I was not disappointed. While my usual genre is historical romance, my recent forays into different genre have been immensely enjoyable and Firestorm ranks as one of the best. I loved the chemistry between the characters, and while the antagonistic relationship between Kerry and Silver is not an original plot twist, it was pulled off very well in this story. I think my favorite scene is where Silver comes to Kerry in the hospital when she is seeing the fire that kills her friend. He is clearly moved by her pain but his need to stay apart emotionally from people is such a struggle for him that the reader is immediately sympathetic, despite his often cold and self-serving demeanor. I enjoyed the comic relief of both Sam the arson dog, such as he was, and George the mysterious butler who at times was so well written that I questioned his loyalties. My only critique of this story was the ending. I wish the author had fleshed it out more. It was too easy. I would have like a bit more struggle for the 2 characters. The fact that 11 months had gone by was hardly evident in the way the whole thing was resolved. However, all in all, I truly enjoyed it, and read it in half a day. I am already searching out more of the authors novels and am hopeful more have a paranormal flair. This one will remain in my collection.