“When she awoke, the world was on fire.” ― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

 

“We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.” ― Tennessee Williams, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore

 

 

It really doesn’t smell like roast pork, you know. A burned human body, that is. There is just too much difference – a plain slab of pig flesh as compared to a blood filled human body. And Laurie Ann Dinterman knows that smell. Somewhere in the ruins of the former Pirate’s Cove Restaurant, someone has burned to death. Now, the question is not only who, but why.

 

As the only female officer in Mossy Bog, Laurie works harder, and longer, than anyone else in the department. She has to, if she is going to transfer out of a department where she gets no respect into the Sheriff’s Investigative Department. Finding the answer to the arson of the Pirate’s Cove, and the answer to why drifter James Brown (no relation) was inside the building when it burns may mean the difference between promotion and being stuck in Hillbilly Hell for another year.

 

Enter Georgia State Fire Investigator Wyatt North, a genuine, red blooded pain in the Police Chief’s ass. A PitA that the Chief is determined to dump on Laurie Ann – and if he gets so much as a hangnail, it will be not the Chief’s ass on the line, but Laurie Ann’s. Because North isn’t just the Fire Investigator. He is a Fire Investigator who had a breakdown when he lost his partner to a serial arsonist. Oh, and did he mention that the guy is also the much beloved nephew of the First Lady? Yep. Of the good ol’ US of A. Babysitting duty. Oy.

 

Maggie Toussaint has done a beautiful job with Hot Water. Her characters are believable, her setting well drawn, and her research/knowledge of how things run in a small department is spot-on. Believe me, I have been a woman in a small, backwater police department. It isn’t fun.

 

This is a romantic suspense novel, but unlike many stories Toussaint doesn’t overwhelm the “suspense” with the “romance”. This is a well-rounded story with a tight storyline and a heavy dose of edge-of-your-seat action, a bit of snark, and a few well interspersed laughs. Overall, a book I would recommend to both romance and suspense readers.

 

This is Book 2 of the Mossy Bog Series. I didn’t feel lost at all, even though I hadn’t read the first book. I hope you enjoy it. If you enjoyed my review, please say “yes” to my Amazon post. Thank you!

I hate to be a curmudgeon, but boy, was this book a disappointment. The characters were shallow and some seemed totally pointless. The plot was disjointed with themes that had nothing to do with the arson investigation I thought that the book was supposed to be about. I muddled through because the reader on the audio was excellent; had it been a print book, I would have closed it after the first couple of chapters. There was unnecessary foul language and the crude descriptions of sex scenes seemed to be completely irrelevant to the storyline. The author even tried to incorporate politics with some idle mention of Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and an attack on the embassy in Nairobi; neither of the themes were developed, and they had no real bearing on anything. In the end I wondered, who was her audience, or rather what kind of an audience was she now trying to attract? Surely it wasn’t the same one that read her previous books. My kind of reader doesn’t need to know if the character “stopped to take a piss” or has a “hard-on”. Why was the smutty language even necessary?
Basically, the story is about a family, Sylvia, the mother; Alfie, the father; and Frankie, the daughter. Frankie, 43, has lived in Kenya for the last 15 years employed as an aide worker. She is unmarried and fairly wanton in her ways. Most of the book describes the fact that she relished her life and freedom in Africa, was very dedicated to helping the people there, and she slept around with several available men. Her mother and father had recently retired and moved to her mother’s childhood vacation home in a very quiet town in New Hampshire. When Frankie decided to take a sabbatical, to figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, she returned there, and within hours of her arrival, an arsonist hit the scene. During the ensuing weeks, she met Bud, the editor of the local newspaper and had an affair with him. At the same time, she discovered that her father was having a problem with his memory, was having hallucinations, and was sometimes disoriented and confused. Her mother was not sure she could handle her future as his caregiver. There were few resources to help her in their small community.
I kept asking myself, what is this story about? Where is it going? For me, it went pretty much nowhere. I didn’t like Frankie, and she was the main character. Although she participated in an entirely altruistic profession, she was flippant in her own life, almost unable to make any real, lasting attachments. Furthermore, she never seemed to grow out of the habit of treating people dismissively. In summary, the book is about several unsatisfying love affairs, an inconclusive arson investigation, and a thin exploration of diseases affecting the mind and memory. Mostly, it seemed to be about Frankie’s confusion about her own needs, which I don’t believe were ever fully realized.

 

THE ARSONIST by Sue Miller

I enjoyed this very well written book until I got to the end. Then I felt cheated. Where was the conclusion? What happened? Who was guilty? Who died? Who loved?

 

Frankie and Bud were clearly drawn, likeable characters. Frankie’s life in Africa was detailed enough to make her believable if unknown and unknowable. Bud was always known and knowable. Sylvia and Alfie were good foils for Frankie and Bud.

 

The fires seemed peripheral to the story, unnecessary even.

 

Did I like this book? While I was reading it – unequivocally yes! Did I like it once I finished the book – not so much. The last 10 pages seemed like a cop out – I don’t know what to do with these characters and their story, so I’ll just end it.

 

Very unsatisfying. 1 of 5 stars

If you're in an airport, and you don't have anything to read, and you are in one of those airport bookstores, and you don't see anything else you want to read more, you could buy this book and it would get you through your trip. Or you could just make up stories about the crazy ass people in the airport and then watch in-flight movies on the plane and shoot spitballs at the annoying drunk guy three rows up. (But you have to bring your own straw. They don't give you straws on airplanes. This is probably why. Steal a handful from one of those overpriced fast food chains in the airport. If security asks why you need a dozen straws, tell them, "Emergency tracheotomies.")It could have been clever and funny as hell. (It's not.) Sam Pulsifer's kind of likeable. But likeable in the way that you say "Hey, s'up?" to your regular clerk at the 7-11. Not likeable like you'd want to hang out with him after his shift's over. You don't really give a crap about him. You could root for the guy, but, like he says (over and over again) he's a bumbler. Not even the kind of bumbler that you hope will make good, like the loser kids with their PeeWee hockey team in Disney movies that you secretly hope will win the championship, despite all odds being against them. (Don't worry, they will, it's a Disney movie and that's how they roll.) Sam's just one of those dudes whose life is a wreck, and you feel a vague, "Oh? Is that what he's doing now?" curiosity. But you can't root for him, because you know, deep down, it's wasted energy.Kind of like reading this book.

God has quite the obsession with fruit, it's true.Irreverence when it come to religion is always a tricky balance. These are beliefs that are dear to many people's hearts. But some of them are, yes, a little ridiculous when viewed objectively by a non-believer.Wenke walks us through the more famous stories of the Old and New Testament, pointing out the inconsistencies, the violence, the capriciousness and changing character of God, the mysogyny and homophobia.I did have quite a few giggles as many of my childhood questions were presented: "What happened to the fishes during the flood?" and "If God hardened pharaoh's heart, doesn't that make the plagues God's fault?" In some ways, however, I wish the book was longer. There were so many more good bits that Wenke was not able to include. Such as Adam's other wife Lillith and where Mrs. Cain came from. Oh and that whole snacking on body-and-blood of Jesus thing.Of course, the Bible is not meant to be read literally. As with all sources of religious beliefs and mythology, it's been copied and miscopied and edited and corrected and biased so much that even if it was once the Word of God, it isn't anymore. That doesn't make it invaluable as a piece of history and culture, just as a guide for behaviour in present society. Wenke's book amuses because he purposefully judges the events of the Bible with the morals of today, which is anathema to good historical research, but a goldmine for humour.This review also appears at Boxes of Paper