In the Red

Weary and hard-boiled, the firefighting hero of Ashbaugh's (Downtick) tough-guy thriller has, regrettably, too much in common with the novel's prose. As the mansions of Westchester County burn down to the manicured ground and not a pillared portico is left uncharred, fire marshal Jake Ferguson and his deputy Don Ederling answer the community's distress. Their opponent, the suburban arsonist, targets only the houses belonging to the executives of Morson Grayhead, ""one of Wall Street's few remaining independent financial juggernauts,"" striking only when the wives are home alone. Downtown Manhattan, as Ashbaugh portrays the financial district, is soiled with the filth of lucre and base greed--the motive, it seems, for the murders and fires--while the suburbs are riddled with bitter domestic secrets that may also play a part in the conflagrations. The investigation does not go smoothly, nor does the prose: ""Jake felt stymied, unable to break the heavy cloak of secrecy blanketing the darkest core of the case."" Far more gripping than the identity of the arsonist are Ashbaugh's fascinating, albeit grotesque, descriptions of burned bodies. A Wall Street exec and volunteer fireman in Maine, Ashbaugh brings experience to the well-researched background of a thriller that would have benefited from language that rose above the stiff and banal. (Apr.)