The Wildfire Season

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Canadian author Andrew Pyper's suspense/mystery takes place in the wilds of the Yukon Territory and revolves around a man physically scarred and psychologically tormented by a horrific past -- a past that seems to follow him no matter how far he runs…

An emotionally supercharged, darkly atmospheric novel in which the protagonist's anguish is almost palpable, The Wildfire Season chronicles the life of Miles McEwan, a firefighter who, while working the wildfire season in northwestern Canada, was terribly burned when a blow-up trapped him and his crew. McEwan carries ghastly scars on his face and neck, but the real pain comes from knowing that his decisions could have led to the death of a young firefighter. After the tragedy, McEwan's personal life imploded; he eventually dumped his fiancée, Alex, and disappeared. Five and a half years later, he is living in the middle of nowhere, 300 miles below the Arctic Circle, when Alex finally tracks him down and introduces him to his daughter, Rachel. But when a suspicious wildfire rips through the region and endangers McEwan's newfound family, fate forces him to make some difficult decisions and brings him face-to-face with his deadliest enemy: himself.

In an industry that is increasingly acknowledging and embracing exceptional mystery and thriller authors from all over the world -- Japan's Miyuki Miyabe, Iceland's Arnaldur Indridason, Ireland's Ken Bruen, et al. -- Pyper is at the forefront of a decidedly conspicuous invasion of talented Canadians (including James W. Nichol, Robert McGill, and Ann-Marie MacDonald, and others). The profound and poetic beauty of this distinctly Canadian novel is in its understated complexity. Equal parts adrenaline-inducing thriller, redemptive spiritual journey, harrowing survival tale, and unlikely love story, The Wildfire Season deftly weaves symbolism and allegory into the narrative to create a profoundly moving work of literature that succeeds on numerous levels. Highly recommended. Paul Goat Allen

Marilyn Stasio

Striving for an elegiac style, Pyper commits what might be considered a literary crime in anthropomorphizing the two forces of nature that threaten to devastate Ross River. Attributing human sensibility to the forest fire (“as with all fires, it will have no desire but to live”) adds nothing to its already cataclysmic presence. But in conferring a personality on the grizzly bear that deliberately endangers herself when she lingers to mourn her dead cub (“she inhales what’s left of his living scents”), he creates a memorable character — and a real conflict about which parents and children to root for in his fierce morality tale.
— The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Set in Ross River, a tiny Canadian Yukon settlement, Pyper's subtle thriller develops a sense of dread more from the menace of uncontrollable forest fires and lurking grizzlies than the human predator who remains anonymous until the end. The local fire chief, Miles McEwan, is a loner whose hidden past is revealed when Alex, his vengeful former lover, arrives in Ross River with their five-year-old daughter, Rachel. Meanwhile, a retired executive and his wife come to town for a grizzly hunt, and it's wildfire season. As several fires combine to threaten Ross River's stubbornly independent inhabitants, the firefighters, the hunting party and the bears, an individual is plotting murder. Pyper (Lost Girls) writes beautifully about the splendor and dangers of the wilderness. He doesn't anthropomorphize, but his understanding of bears and fire imbues both with a life force. A bestseller in Canada, this novel offers excellent pacing and credible characters, though readers should be prepared for some horrific violence. (Dec.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Set in the Yukon Territory, Pyper's novel is populated by characters that either by choice or necessity have little contact with the world Outside (as it's always capitalized in the book). Central to the story is Miles McEwan, a forest firefighter who is in self-imposed exile after a fire five years earlier left him with physical and mental scars. When the girlfriend and daughter he left behind turn up, he is forced to face his demons. The story's drawn-out climax involves an out-of-control fire started by a mysterious arsonist, which threatens not only the town of Ross River, but an ill-fated bear-hunting party as well. The very real human story is somewhat at odds with the over-the-top action-movie-style heroics and confrontations in the second half of the book, but many readers, whether they are interested in compelling characters or an action-filled plot, will find something that appeals. Recommended for public libraries. Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A runaway wildfire tests the mettle and reawakens the spirits of a battle-scarred firefighter in the Canadian author's latest (The Trade Mission, 2002, etc.). Four-fifths of a very good novel, this begins splendidly, with an incrementally detailed picture of hard lives in the Yukon wilderness (300 miles south of the Arctic Circle) in the remote town of Ross River ("We're the shit end of the stick out here"). It's a tough town indeed, where fire chief Miles McEwan (who bears disfiguring facial and bodily scars from old burns, along with equally painful memories) commands a hard-drinking crew of phlegmatically heroic firemen; wrestles with the aftereffects of an affair with hunting guide Margot Lemontagne and the hatred of her embittered current lover, Wade Fuerst; and wonders how to react to the unexpected reappearance of Alex, the woman whom he had loved and left before Margot, and the young daughter (Rachel) whose existence comes as a complete surprise to him. Pyper explores their intensifying interrelationships skillfully, filling in explanatory details with precisely timed flashbacks, and disclosing actions from the viewpoints of numerous involved souls, including all the aforementioned characters, the elderly couple who engage Margot's services and-quite imaginatively-a female grizzly bear who loses her cubs to humans and becomes, as much as does the spreading fire which provides the central plot, the incarnation of an embattled natural world patiently, implacably seeking its revenge. Two grievous miscalculations all but ruin the novel. Brief sequences shown from the viewpoint of an unidentified arsonist are never brought to resolution, and an overly melodramatic chain of coincidentalclimaxes drains away much of the credibility built up by the story's rich specificity. The ending toward which Pyper shapes his story is simply not believable. It's a pity: This might have been a truly exemplary thriller. Agent: Anne McDermid/Anne McDermid and Associates Ltd.