Bruce Von Stiers

Earl Emerson is a unique mystery writer. His day job is as a firefighter. He is a Lieutenant on the Seattle Fire Department. In his second job as mystery writer, Emerson does exceeding well. He has a series about a Seattle P.I. named Thomas Black. He also has a series featuring Fire Chief Mac Fontana in Staircase, Washington. In a slight departure from what he’s been writing, Emerson has just released a novel called Vertical Burn. It was published by Ballentine.

When I say this new book is a slight departure, I mean it is a stand alone book that neither involves Thomas Black or Mac Fontana. It does involve firefighting and a mystery though. The lead character in the book is John Finney, a Seattle firefighter.

John Finney is in the middle of fighting a fire at a building with his partner, Bill Cordifis, when a wall falls on them. Bill is trapped and John goes to get help. Only Bill never makes it out as the building ends up engulfed in flames.

We get bits and pieces of the world of John Finney as he tries to recover from injuries from the fire and deal with the loss of his partner. Members of the fire department think that he got scared, panicked and left his partner to die. John is sure that he left a signaling device close to Bill so that other firefighters could find him if he didn’t get back with other help. But that is not the story that some other firefighters are telling.

Finney tries to reconstruct the fire and what really happened to Bill Cordifis. Finney thinks that he might have uncovered a plot to torch buildings owned by a business exec with marital problems. If he is right, the business owner is in cahoots with several firefighters. The corruption may reach to the highest levels of the Seattle Fire Department. Finney sets out to clear his name and uncover the true circumstances behind the fire that claimed the life of his partner.

In the meantime, there are complications with his family and friends. His brother is a firefighter and their father has just retired from the department. John has also become very friendly with Dianna Moore, a female fire fighter. They all want what is best for John. Or do they?

As things go along in the story, we learn a lot about the methods and procedures of fire fighting. Emerson provides a lot of detail about the equipment that is used and how fires are fought.

Even though the plot is somewhat different, as I was reading the book I was reminded of the movie, Backdraft. Both the movie and this book deal with corruption in fire departments and brave fight fighters trying to make things right.

Vertical Burn is a taut suspense novel. The details of how fires are fought add a lot to the storyline. And with Emerson’s experience with mystery writing, the suspense continues to build until the very end of the book.

You can find out more about Vertical Burn and Earl Emerson at his web site. The site can be found at www.earlemerson.com.