Book Review: City of Fire

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

City of Fire     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Robert Ellis
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character   Police Procedural   Thriller
Series: Lena Gamble # 1
St Martins Paperbacks, July 2008

Detective Lena Gamble is new to the Los Angeles Robbery Homicide division, and feels intense pressure to prove herself as a rookie detective and as a woman. She and her partner are called to the scene of a brutal murder, and the investigation turns up another killing of another woman, with disturbing similarities between the two crimes and the two crime scenes. In each case, the woman's husband is the immediate suspect, and indeed, one of the men has confessed in a rage of despair and grief.

Yet how could one man, in custody after confessing to murder, kill a second time with such chilling identical detail? Unable to satisfy themselves that either man is responsible, Lena and her partner continue to search for patterns and detail that will connect the two crimes, in classic police procedural style.

Ellis alternates points of view between cops and the killer, creating parallel story lines, and parallel lines of intrigue which eventually intersect. As Lena learns more and discovers troubling facts, she begins to suspect the involvement of a rogue cop. Family loyalties and the continuing stress of loss and grief begin to color the activities of all the characters. A classic brush fire begins just outside the city, complicating the investigation. Along the way Ellis provides entertaining glimpses into some of the neighborhoods of LA - parts of the city rarely seen in glitzy Hollywood productions.

Woodstock - RAM

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