Vertical Burn

Rating:
Summary: His best yet!
Review: I've been an Earl Emerson fan for many years, and enjoy both of his main characters. John Finney, in Vertical Burn, is another terrific character, and one I hope we'll see again. Emerson's personal experience as a Seattle fireman brings a depth to the writing, and a sense of the reality of firefighters. It was a long wait for this book, but it's one of his best!

Rating:
Summary: A Milestone in You-Are-THERE! Suspense!
Review: If there can be a literary equivalent to cinema verite, no one is better qualified than Earl Emerson to immerse his readers in the life and death realities of the world of professional firefighting. In VERTICAL BURN, Emerson, a twenty-four year veteran of the Seattle Fire Department, gives us a graphic and gritty, warts-and-all, microcosmic vision of that world...its daily routines, terrible stresses, moments of glory and terror...as seen through the eyes of his hero, John Finney, who has dedicated his own life and honor to his profession only to find himself at the mercy of a political/criminal cabal that threatens the one and would tarnish the other. Branded a coward and denied promotion after the (to him) inexplicable death of his long-time friend and partner in a questionable fire and sensing a cover-up, Finney starts his own investigation into its circumstances and uncovers evidence of a horrifying pattern of arson for profit being executed with diabolic ingenuity, apparently aided and abetted from within the department itself. Talk about smoke and mirrors! No one except his fellow firefighter Diana Moore is willing to take him seriously when he predicts that there will be more fires, and when his worst fears are realized, he is again demonized by the political powers-that-be as a glory-seeker and an arsonist. Helpless to prevent the initiation of the arsonists' final scenario, his focus narrows to putting his own life on the line to save those of hundreds as the novel culminates in a stunning confrontation between deadly treachery and death-defying heroism high in the skies above Seattle.

VERTICAL BURN is the ultimate in you-are-there suspense fiction. Although its premise seems almost unbelievably horrific in the abstract, Mr. Emerson's skillful craftsmanship...his superb pacing and vivid characterizations...quickly caught me up in the story that he had to tell and made me completely willing to suspend my own disbelief that such things actually could be and simply accept as real his world wherein they well might and apparently do happen. Especially set in juxtaposition to the events of 9/11, I found living in that world an immensely moving and enormously satisfying reading experience.

Rating:
Summary: A NONSTOP THRILLER ABOUT FIRES, HEROES, AND CONSPIRACY
Review: In a departure from his two ongoing series (Thomas Black - Seattle detective and Mac Fontana - rural Washington fire-chief), Earl Emerson has come up with a top-notch mystery thriller. (Though some aspects of the fires and characters did borrow from similar ideas originally in the Fontana books.)

Again the scene of the action is set in Seattle. A fire breaks out in a warehouse and musicians are supposedly trapped inside. For some reason most of the fire companies are answering false alarms and nuisance calls, so the fire fighters are seriously short-handed. The fire gets out of hand while Jack Finney and his partner are still searching for the victims. A wall falls on the partner and the lack of air and the heat force Finney from the building. Outside of the room where the partner is trapped, Finney runs into the chief and another firefighter. He tells them where his partner is before he is forced from the building. But the partner is never discovered until after the building has burnt to the ground.

Six months later, Finney is still haunted by the fire especially since everyone blames him for leaving his partner to die. He has scoured the ruins of the warehouse repeatedly and studied all aspects of the official details on the fire. His suspicions grow that the fire was not an accident ... and fears that something worse is yet to come.

Don't read this book before bed, because you'll never get to sleep! I couldn't put it down. Emerson's detailing of the fires and the heroes who risk their lives fighting them is superb. He knows the territory first hand and his writing puts you on the fire trucks and in the heart of the inferno! I liked his series books, but VERTICAL BURN is in a class by itself. It earned my *****+ rating, and I recommend it to all of you.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: John Finney is a Seattle firefighter, son of former chief and brother of a captain. Six months before story opens, a long-time friend and partner is killed in a fire and John barely escapes with his life. The rumor is that John panicked and left his partner to die. John is sure he gave directions to the location of partner who is pinned under a beam, but his chief says he was babbling. This is a thriller from page one and doesn't let up.
I started right after meeting Earl Emerson at a local bookstore and read nearly straight through the next 2 days.

Rating:
Summary: A little disappointing
Review: John Finney, the main character in Vertical Burn, is rather flat. The plot plodded along at a pace that barely kept me interested. I probably wouldn't have finished it if not for the fact that I'm a loyal Emerson fan. The book's highly detailed accounts of firefighting were obviously written by a pro in the field, but this was done at the expense of the phenomenal storytelling Emerson is so capable of. I wanted to get lost between the pages like I've done so many times with Thomas Black and Mac Fontana. This didn't even come close to happening as I read Vertical Burn.

Rating:
Summary: A little disappointing
Review: John Finney, the main character in Vertical Burn, is rather flat. The plot plodded along at a pace that barely kept me interested. I probably wouldn't have finished it if not for the fact that I'm a loyal Emerson fan. The book's highly detailed accounts of firefighting were obviously written by a pro in the field, but this was done at the expense of the phenomenal storytelling Emerson is so capable of. I wanted to get lost between the pages like I've done so many times with Thomas Black and Mac Fontana. This didn't even come close to happening as I read Vertical Burn.

Rating:
Summary: A good author gets even better!
Review: Other reviews will give you the plot. I will add that Emerson creates vivid, breathing, flawed human beings whose thoughts and feelings and actions interest me, and none more so than firefighter John Finney. This book is begging to be made into a movie!

As for another reviewer's remark that Emerson wrote this book to cash in on 9/11, that's an unjustified accusation of his character. This book was probably already in the publisher's hands by 9/11, or near enough to, in order to be galleyed and proofed, and a book tour planned, for an April/May release.

I'm glad to see Emerson's publisher is finally throwing some weight into supporting one of his books. With a little PR this guy could be on the bestseller lists in another book or two. And IMHO, it's long overdue.

Rating:
Summary: WHERE'S THE FIRE?
Review: Sorry to say this book does not live up to the hype; nor the other reviews that praise it so much. It is only so-so.

It isn't much of a thriller, about a third of the way through you have a pretty good idea of who the bad-guys are and can guess where the plot will lead. After two hundred pages your just on automatic, reading to get to the end you already know: Will the main character redeem himself; can he prove he's being framed; will he find love with the hot (pun intended) female fire figther we meet on page one; will the bad-guys get caught? Come on! Want to hazard a guess here & now?
Even the parts that take place in the midst of burning buildings fail to bring any real excitement. And another thing, I've always had trouble with books where the main character is so stupid they can't see what the reader can see a mile away, here it happens in spades. After two fires where he is blamed for the death of fellow firemen and accused of arson what else does he need, to be branded with "FRAMED" on his forehead, to get the point.
One had hoped this book would be much more based on comments and reviews but it isn't It's not bad, but it isn't that good. Wait until the paperback or you'll find yourself reading this book and when done ask "where's the fire?"

Rating:
Summary: Quite Good
Review: This is the first novel that I have read by this author, and I have to say that it is pretty darn good!! The suspense in this book is plenty, and it really keeps you guessing what is going to happen next with the characters. I have found that I have become somewhat concerned for the characters in this book, this is how real the author makes it sound. Excellent book to read on those cold nights with the fire roaring.

Rating:
Summary: IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN...
Review: This stand-alone book of Emerson's was thrilling from the very first page to the very last page. I have read every book he's written in both his Thomas Black and his Mac Fontana series, and "Vertical Burn" tops every one of them. It was fast-paced and suspenseful. I would read into the early-morning hours every morning and would quit reading only due to sheer exhaustion. I felt as if I was the firefighter, dragging hose lines and hauling axes. I couldn't wait to find out if John Finney would live or die. I'd already had the utmost respect for firefighters, but this book gave me an insight into their world that I don't think I could ever forget. I recommend it for anyone who likes a fabulous action book...the only thing I regret is that there isn't a follow-up to read next! A+++++