Book Review: Firetrap

Reviewed By: Pat Reid - RAM

Firetrap     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Earl Emerson
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Firefighting / Firefighters   Thriller
Ballantine Books, 2006, 350 pps.

Captain Trey Brown is with the Seattle Fire Department but his name wasn’t always Brown. Trey Brown was a black baby adopted into the all white Carmichael family when he was a child. When he was 17 years old Trey was accused of a crime that he didn’t commit and was thrown out of the Carmichael family.

Now it seems that he is destined to once again be caught in the middle of the maneuverings of this rich family even though that is not his desire.

Captain Brown was involved in an arson fire at a run down building called the Z Club. When the fire broke out there was a Hispanic party taking place on the first floor and another party on the second floor involving a number of African-Americans. It wasn’t discovered that anyone was actually on the second floor until the fire was raging. Captain Brown was able to save a number of people by throwing them out a window.

A group calling themselves the Z Club Citizens for Truth has retained Jamie Estevez, a TV news reporter. They plan to set up an independent inquiry into the circumstances around the fire at the Z Club and write a report. The report will be accountable only to the families of the victims and Captain Brown has been drafted to help Estevez.

This investigation puts Brown directly in contact with the Carmichael family since his former brother is now the mayor. The suspense builds as Jamie and Trey try to reconstruct the true story of the fire but in doing so more and more information about the crime that Trey was accused of is coming to the surface.

I very much enjoyed this book. Emerson gives a lot of insight into the workings of the fire department and after reading this book I appreciate our fire fighters more than ever.

I intend to look for more Earl Emerson books.

Pat Reid - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Pat Reid - RAM