Blaze

In bestseller Ross's intense, seamlessly plotted novel of romantic suspense, Tess Gannon, who's been a fire investigator in Somersett, S.C., since her firefighter fiancé, Danny, died two years earlier in a mill fire, teams up with former ATF Special Agent Gage O'Halloran, a widower, to look into an apartment fire that Gage believes was set by a serial arsonist. As Tess and Gage try to solve the arson case, they engage in sizzling foreplay, rendered all the more powerful by the excess emotional baggage that each carries. Gage's overt sexual references, rather than being offensive, seem to match his personality, that of a devil-may-care cowboy who lives for the moment. He's also a talented investigator who becomes immersed in the captivating mystery surrounding the serial arsons, which may be connected to the mill fire that killed Danny. Though the man known as the Flamemaster, who murdered Gage's wife, is now in San Quentin, this new arsonist is a clever copycat, writing threatening letters to the Somersett newspaper signed "Flamemaster." Ross (Out of the Mist ) keeps the heat on right to the last page. Agent, Robert Gottlieb at Trident Media Group. (Aug.)