Vertical Burn
This fact-based thriller is more facts than thrills, as Earl Emerson, a  lieutenant in the Seattle Fire Department who's penned a series of solid  mysteries featuring detective Thomas Black, puts his professional expertise  front and center. That may be a plus, as the book's centerpiece is an arson fire  in a skyscraper, a scene that brings the NYFD's heroism on 9/11 sadly to mind,  giving this book in timeliness what it lacks in narrative drama. There's a plot  somewhere here which has to do with a few venal, scheming bad guys in a  (fictional) Seattle Fire Department who keep a hero fireman from upsetting their  big score by discrediting him, and when that doesn't work, trying to kill him.  But Emerson concentrates less on character, story, and pacing than on the highly  technical details of urban firefighting, which, while perhaps widening Emerson's  appeal to a general audience, may make this title less than compelling to the  devoted fans of his mysteries.--Jane Adams--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.