Publishers Weekly
This third novel in the series featuring Georgia Skeehan (Flashover) has the FDNY fire marshal investigating a fire in a swank Manhattan restaurant that kills two veteran firefighters. Skeehan initially suspects notorious extortionist Mike McLaughlin. McLaughlin, known as the Freezer (because "that's where his victims always ended up") used to run with an Irish street gang in Hell's Kitchen before going solo. He's long been shaking down the owner of Cafe Treize and may have torched the restaurant when the owner got too far behind in his payments. But there's a catch: the FDNY can't investigate McLaughlin because he's an informant for the FBI-he helps the Feds spy on a radical environmentalist group called the Green Warriors, who have been contracting out their acts of sabotage to McLaughlin. Skeehan has to go undercover in a joint FDNY-FBI investigation of both the restaurant fire and the Green Warriors, who may have some connection to the fire, and she's torn between her loyalties to the two organizations. Other complications include a firefighter who wants to avenge the death of his two comrades, and the odd behavior of Skeehan's partner, Randy Carter, who appears to be holding out on her as the investigation unfolds. There's also Rick DeAngelo, the estranged father of Skeehan's son, who turns out to be working for the New Jersey mob, and Skeehan's romance with another FDNY marshal Mac Marenko. Chazin once again offers an inside view of the FDNY and visceral descriptions of firefighting, but the complex plot is not as tight as it could be, and the characters-apart from Skeehan herself-are not memorable. Instead of blazing, this third installment merely smolders. (May 26) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Back for the third time (Flashover, 2002, etc.), Fire Marshal Georgia Skeehan is hot on the trail of the evil arsonist who might be behind the murder of her father. But something vital has gone out of Georgia, who was so spunky and appealing in earlier appearances. She's lost the panache, the style, the wit that made her fun to be with. Now she makes such brilliant observations as "You can't take the law into your own hands," as if cliché has suddenly become second nature. When an arson fire fells two veteran firefighters, a third, a rookie, blames his inexperience for the deaths. Suspected of having set the blaze is a remorseless baddie named Mike McLaughlin, also known as the "Freezer" for reasons related to chopped-up body parts. For all his grisly habits, McLaughlin remains a by-the-numbers villain about as nuanced as a fire hydrant. The FBI agents who impede the FDNY's investigation and make Georgia's life miserable are dishearteningly familiar. Her current and former lovers are little more than stick figures. Even the firefighters, heretofore so fully realized, seem downright derivative. In the end, Georgia solves the mystery of her dad's murder, helps bring peace of mind to the rookie and justice to the Freezer, and learns in the process that "life was never clean and simple." Probably a reader or two could have told her that. Plenty of fires, but where's the spark? Agent: Wendy Sherman
