Fire Works in the Hamptons

Hamptons resident Jerome (a pseudonym for romance author Barbara Metzger) keeps things close to home in her low-key third Willow Tate urban fantasy (after May 2011’s Night Mares in the Hamptons). This time around, affably self-absorbed graphic novelist and Visualizer Tate accidentally unleashes a horde of extradimensional lightning bugs on the sleepy town of Paumanok Harbor. Unfortunately, these fireflies start fires, which brings a slew of problems to Willow’s door. After the first mishap, Willow mostly stands around while things happen to her: her angry neighbors worry about Paumanok being outed as a town of psychics; a hunky fireman who extinguishes flames with his mind offers to warm her bed; and a fire-breathing baby gets dropped in her lap. Some nice plot twists and turns do little to make up for the passive protagonist, confusing action sequences, and anticlimactic ending. (Nov.)