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Lena Gamble was recently promoted to the Robbery-Homicide Division of the LAPD. Together with her new partner, Hank Novak, she is coming into her own in the new job. Hank is a veteran, due to retire in three years, but he has been a very generous and welcoming mentor to her. Lena is alone in the world. She and her brother were orphans who depended upon each other, until David was murdered five years previously. That his murder is still unsolved is a great sorrow to Lena. Now as she sips her morning coffee on the patio of the home her brother had left to her, her reverie is broken by a call from Hank. They have been called out to a murder scene; Hank doesn’t tell her much, except that it’s bad. A young woman has been brutally murdered and the scene is as horrific as Hank had suggested to her. Lena thought she was hardened to most violent scenes but his one is especially bloody. As she and Hank begin to put the pieces together, Lena begins to feel that a previous murder that had been blamed on the victim’s spouse might have been committed by the same killer. At first none of the other cops want to hear it, but Lena is persistent and the theory gains credence. Now the cops realize that there is a monster out there and he is killing young women in their beds. The news media quickly jump on the story and they dub the killer “Romeo” – although his actions are hardly those of a lover. CITY OF FIRE is an outstanding police procedural. Besides the drama of the hunt for Romeo, the police and their daily routines are well defined for the reader. Against a backdrop of a series of wildfires that make it seem as though the entire city is burning, there is the hunt for a serial killer. In addition to these killings, Lena is reliving the time of her brother’s murder when she discovers that another cop has been looking at the 'murder book' from the investigation into his killing. Being a homicide cop is complicated enough without ghosts from the past keeping her from sleeping. There are numerous twists and turns in the non-stop action of the book. It’s somewhat of a cliché to say you read the book in one sitting, but in this case it is true. You just cannot put this book down. The reader will be on the edge of their seat until the chilling, shocking conclusion.
Reviewed by Lorraine Gelly, June 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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