Firestorm

Kerry has spent her whole life trying to blend in. Scarred at a young age by the death of her mother in a fire, and her own confinement in an asylum, Kerry's childhood was consumed by unhappy events. With the development of her mysterious psychic gifts she was able to find a purpose helping the police identify arsonists. But her quite life is about to be turned on its head by a man named Brad Silver. Silver comes with his own psychic powers and he's hot on the trail of a madman who has gotten his hands on a powerful weapon developed by the government. Kerry's unique abilities might be the world's only hope to stop this insane terrorist.

This is not a good book. It's not terrible, but it's not good at all. If you've read Iris Johansen show more before this book will be very familiar to you. All Johansen's characters are the same. They all have childishly petulant tempers, they all use "dammit" like punctuation, and they all instantly hate each other, but then, later realize that they deeply love and need each other. Kerry and Brad will be no exception.

There's other stuff going on - a magical fire-starting machine of immense power that the government created and then left lying around until an insane megalomaniac stole it, a mystery surrounding the death of Kerry's mother, a completely unnecessary plot line about an abused runaway - but really this is a ham-fisted love story about two unpleasant people. The author tries to spice it up by sprinkling in vague occult "abilities" that are never properly explained, but it's not new even to the author. If that's your cup of tea, drink up! show less

I. hated. this. book.
I read to page 28 and I honestly could not continue.
From what I've read the premise is this -- Kerry, the main female character, had a traumatic experience with fire as a kid and this now gives her psychic powers to tell when someone dies in a fire. Presumedly, because of these psychic abilities of hers a man is able to "enter her" and calm her and essentially save her from her own undoing.

I could not move beyond the "enter her" and "come out of her" without giggling like a boy in junior high during sex ed. I literally pissed people off because I tweeted about every single reference to entering and exiting her. I think I was told to grow up and stop reading it that way. I literally could not.

Just like I literally show more could not read another sentence from this HORRIBLE book. I will be putting it in the recycling bin to save anyone else from having to read it.

Adrianne show less

Firestorm SIZZLES!

I just finished this novel today as a reward to a grueling week and the first thing I have to say is that it is ironic that Iris Johansen and I were on the same ‘wavelength’ in 2004, with both of us publishing a novel about female psychics who investigate arsons or suspicious fires. I have been a longtime fan of Johansen--long before she branched out into the romantic suspense genre and this novel did not let me down.

In Firestorm, she takes a seemingly normal arson investigator, Kerry, with a trained arson dog who is given all the credit and throws her together with a mysterious and somewhat ‘controlling’ mystery man, Brad Silver. Add to this Trask, the evil genius who designed Firestorm, a secret government show more project that could annihilate an entire city with the press of a button.

At first, Kerry is resistant to helping Silver track down Trask. Until the madman targets her brother’s house. With Silver’s not-so-patient guidance, Kerry fine-tunes her ‘gift’ and the chase is on. With plot twists and subplots that involve a fire from Kerry’s past and a flaming romance with Silver, this is a novel that sizzles. I read it last night. In one sitting.

Cheryl Kaye Tardif,
Canadian suspense author show less

This book was not as spectacular as I had expected. Liked the arsenist part, the race against the clock to catch him before he does a whole lot of damage.
What didn't impress me at all, was the romance part. It was really just like a Harlequin-book and that's not something I wanted to read in a book that's advertised as a thriller.

This book is a poorly written supernatural story about Kerry Murphy, a psychic arson detective, and her dog, Sam, who Trask, a psychotic scientist with a twisted passion for killing, targets. By using Firestorm, a device he calls his child, Trask’s obsession with fire draws Kerry’s attention, and before she knows what’s happening, her family and friends are dying horrible deaths. In walks Brad Silver, another psychic, with his own reason for wanting Trask punished. When Kerry and Brad join forces, they ignite a different kind of fire while taking down the bad guys. I found the protagonist, Kerry, to be a very unlikeable character and the romantic tension to be tiresome.

It was an okay book, the villain was really messed up which I enjoy in books but the one thing I did not care for was the physic element. I just don't really enjoy a book when it has a physic cop or in this case a fire inspector looking for a killer using physic ability, it's just to much like cheating to me. That and I believe all physics are fakes.

Firestorm is an intense read that is hard to put down and full of action and emotion.