In this eagerly anticipated but disappointing follow-up to The Fourth Angel, whatever foundations Chazin might have laid for a good thriller get buried beneath an exasperatingly overwritten and overwrought tale marred by contrived plot mechanisms. Fire marshal Georgia Skeehan and her veteran sidekick, Randy Carter, are called to investigate a fire that took the life of a retired doctor with a history of denying pensions to firefighters disabled in the line of duty. To complicate matters, Georgia's best friend, NYPD detective Connie Ruiz, confirms that there is talk of a bomb threat to a fuel pipeline under the city and that whoever is behind it knew the retired doctor. Fearing the fatal fire connects to other doctors formerly associated with the FDNY, they rush across town too late to save a second M.D. from a similar fate, and Mac Marenko, Georgia's supervisor and lover, accuses her of negligence. The entire situation ignites when Connie mysteriously disappears and Mac is found in her bullet-riddled, blood-splattered apartment, with no memory of what happened. Despite efforts to discourage her investigation, Georgia follows a trail of clues unearthing a connection between a toxic New York warehouse fire in the late 1970s and the current mayor's plans to erect a new football stadium on the site. Politics, greed, betrayal and cold-blooded murder: sadly, the elements of a dark, suspenseful story become ashes on a pyre of pulpy melodrama and artless crafting. And the somewhat tasteless—however well-intended—listing of all 343 members of the FDNY who died in the World Trade Center disaster may strike some as rather inappropriate for the dedication page of a commercial thriller. (May)
Forecast:
The Fourth Angel's success and FDNY's heightened fame will draw in new readers and bring back the old ones, but Georgia's sophomore adventure is a bumpy ride. Everything—research, description, dialogue—feels overdone, and could dampen sales..
