{"id":6174,"date":"2016-11-07T05:52:04","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T10:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6174"},"modified":"2016-11-07T05:52:04","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T10:52:04","slug":"combustion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6174","title":{"rendered":"***Combustion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"combustion,

The King Fire; photo: US Forest Service Region 5, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

By Martin J. Smith \u2013 I guess it\u2019s some kind of progress to see the growth in the number of crime novels and television series that give hardworking male police detectives a woman boss. And, perhaps it reflects even more progress that these female supervisors are allowed to have flaws, unlike the ever-understanding \u201cMa\u2019am\u201d in the Inspector Lewis shows.<\/p>\n

In Martin J. Smith\u2019s new police procedural, Detective Ron Starke works for the police department in the city of Los Colmas, in giant San Bernardino County, California\u2019s Inland Empire. His new chief\u2014grabbing a job he expected would be his\u2014is Donna Kerrigan, recently divorced from a rich husband and an inveterate micromanager, who Starke thinks has \u201cthe people skills of a rattlesnake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starke is a likeable detective, diligently trying to unravel what befell wealthy property developer Paul Dwyer. Dwyer\u2019s body was found at the bottom of a rapidly evaporating pond adjacent to his most recent upscale housing development. He had a bullet in his brain and evidence suggested he\u2019d been tortured. Starke has a history with the widowed Mrs. Dwyer, the magnate\u2019s second wife, that goes back to high school and a brief romance.<\/p>\n

When he interviews Shelby Dwyer and her daughter Chloe in their magnificent home, it\u2019s quite a contrast to his down-market residence above the Suds-Your-Duds laundromat. Any number of people turn up as serviceable murder suspects. In fact, there may be too large a stack of possibilities, because the motives of them all can\u2019t be developed to the extent that would make them truly credible.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s even a whiff of DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) concern about money-laundering for the Sinaloa drug cartel. This possibility prompted a couple of authorial essays about how the cartels work\u2014interesting stuff that you might want to know about, but not necessary to the plot of this book, especially since that line of inquiry soon evaporates like the water in Dwyer\u2019s containment pond.<\/p>\n

Because this is a multiple point-of-view novel, you know things Starke does not. You know Shelby has sought relief from her unhappy marriage online, establishing a chatroom relationship with someone who calls himself LoveSick\u2014ever supportive, ever kind, ever romantic. But who is he, really? Shelby has every urgent 21st century reason for wanting to know. I especially enjoyed Smith\u2019s descriptions of the computer geeks Starke eventually deals with, as he tracks down Shelby\u2019s missing hard drive. Those guys were entertainingly totally on their own wavelength\u2014broadband, of course.<\/p>\n

The blind forces of nature help bring matters to a head. A massive wildfire, driven by the Santa Ana winds, is bearing down on Los Colmas and the Dwyer development. In the middle of that fiery maelstrom, Smith\u2019s protagonists face their ultimate challenges.<\/p>\n

The fire proves unequivocally that, no matter how \u201cin control\u201d you think you are, some things are beyond you. I wish the author hadn\u2019t overstuffed the narrative with tantalizing suspects and a couple of brief, early scenes with Starke\u2019s ailing father, in care because of early-onset Alzheimer\u2019s disease. He was an interesting character and that was a relationship worth developing. Sequels?
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