Firestorm by Solange Ritchie

This is #2. The opener was The Burning Man that I haven’t read. Apparently, a fire nut named Eric was being pursued by Dr. Catherine (Cat) Powers, an FBI forensic pathologist. Based on slivers of clues, Eric had something to with Cat’s husband’s death and the abduction of Joey, her young son. Appears that Eric was never caught and not heard from since.

Firestorm begins roughly a year or so later. Cat and Joey are trying to get on with life. At least until Cat receives an envelope containing photos of when Joey was held captive by Eric. The delivery trail is traced back to Southern California’s Orange County. Cat heads west from DC and rejoins her local cop contact from a year earlier, Jim McGregor, to track down Eric.

Eric’s been busy on a couple fronts. First, he’s had a bit of a makeover courtesy of a cosmetic surgeon, so Cat won't recognize him if she sees him. More importantly, he’s met someone. An Orange County fireman, David, who also has a bit of a thing for fire, occupationally and recreationally. Together they are a formidable team.

Eric’s MO had been to meet up with his victim and after getting the kill, carve the corpse into something nearly unrecognizable. Then set a fire. David likes to set wildfires that start off as property crimes, but eventually graduate to murder.

Cat and McGregor track down one corpse after another, but catch a break (they think) and find Eric standing over his latest victim. Was it good police work or did Eric lead them to him for a suicide by cop?

In a rage, David starts setting a number of fires in the national forests that surround Orange County housing areas. Property losses and deaths mount. His twisted mind starts to take on Eric’s personality and starts killing women, only David doesn’t carve up the victim, he carves Eric’s name into the skin so that Cat knows there is a connection to her past. She thought she was done with Eric.

Thanks to Page-Turner Publicity for a pre-release copy. The author is a Florida attorney. The story is well plotted and paced. But I think it would’ve flowed better (for me) had I read The Burning Man first. Eric’s not in this book for all that long and he seemed to be a more interesting character than David. Only other thing that bugged me was the ending after Cat and her Orange County Police Chief confront David. Thought Cat’s consoling of the Chief seemed contrived. To me, at least. Otherwise, this was decent.

ECD