*Genre* Mystery, Suspense*Rating* 3.0*Review*FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell is back on the job four months after taking a bullet to the head and nearly dying after stumbling into bizarre investigation in Nebraska. For O'Dell this isn't an uncommon occurrence. She's been shot, contaminated with a virus that killed her boss, tortured, held as hostage, and watched as her friends, and neighbors were targeted by a vicious killer(s). This time she's not the target of anyone except for perhaps a bit of admiration in what she's been put through. Call it the kindred spirit factor if you will.Fireproof marks the return to the series of R.J Tully as Maggie's full time partner. Homicide Detective Julia Racine has taken over much of the storyline along with Maggie, and Tully is left on the sidelines and doesn't get to be any sort of hero. It's good to see Tully back, and I can only hope that it is for good this time and not just a lure to play with reader’s minds and emotions.As for the story, the FBI is called in to investigate a series of fires that stink of arson. The most recent case leaves two fatalities that Maggie and Tully are left scrambling to figure out before the next big fire happens. But, that is just the ground work for what is actually happening behind the scenes.Maggie, still suffering from the after effects of being shot, is under constant scrutiny by the Assistant Director Raymond Kuntz who is once again playing politics with his agent’s lives and careers. Kuntz has Maggie and Tully working on strange cases in order to keep an eye out on them and a boot on their throats as it were. Don't much care for the treatment either character gets by Kuntz, and yet Maggie isn't in a rush to go to Homeland Security or any place else.While Maggie isn't being actively targeted by anyone this time around, she still faces the ups and downs that come with the job and her personal life. She has her brother Patrick, who is working as a contracted firefighter, living with her and her mother once again steps over the line of sanity and is thankfully saved by Julia Racine’s intervention. Her relationship with Benjamin Platt is on the rocks, even though they clearly like each other and are on friendly terms.Bottom line is that Fireproof takes on a mind of its own. Readers are given quick glimpses into the killers mindset, while also following an over eager reporter who has become his own story. In the end, readers are left knowing that this story isn't over with, and there are plenty of victims that have been left by the road side, near highways, rest areas, and truck stops that need to be investigated by Maggie and Tully. We also know that the killer isn’t quite finished with “Magpie” yet.Overall, this story moves along at a brisk pace. I'm not sure what the future holds for this series or even Maggie's relationship with Benjamin. Maggie has had a hard time over the course of ten novels. One can only hope when the time comes to give Maggie a HEA that she finds solace in the fact that she did her job the best way she knew how, and didn't allow anyone to change her way of thinking.
GizmosReviews
*Genre* Mystery, Suspense*Rating* 3.0*Review*FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell is back on the job four months after taking a bullet to the head and nearly dying after stumbling into bizarre investigation in Nebraska. For O'Dell this isn't an uncommon occurrence. She's been shot, contaminated with a virus that killed her boss, tortured, held as hostage, and watched as her friends, and neighbors were targeted by a vicious killer(s). This time she's not the target of anyone except for perhaps a bit of admiration in what she's been put through. Call it the kindred spirit factor if you will.Fireproof marks the return to the series of R.J Tully as Maggie's full time partner. Homicide Detective Julia Racine has taken over much of the storyline along with Maggie, and Tully is left on the sidelines and doesn't get to be any sort of hero. It's good to see Tully back, and I can only hope that it is for good this time and not just a lure to play with reader’s minds and emotions.As for the story, the FBI is called in to investigate a series of fires that stink of arson. The most recent case leaves two fatalities that Maggie and Tully are left scrambling to figure out before the next big fire happens. But, that is just the ground work for what is actually happening behind the scenes.Maggie, still suffering from the after effects of being shot, is under constant scrutiny by the Assistant Director Raymond Kuntz who is once again playing politics with his agent’s lives and careers. Kuntz has Maggie and Tully working on strange cases in order to keep an eye out on them and a boot on their throats as it were. Don't much care for the treatment either character gets by Kuntz, and yet Maggie isn't in a rush to go to Homeland Security or any place else.While Maggie isn't being actively targeted by anyone this time around, she still faces the ups and downs that come with the job and her personal life. She has her brother Patrick, who is working as a contracted firefighter, living with her and her mother once again steps over the line of sanity and is thankfully saved by Julia Racine’s intervention. Her relationship with Benjamin Platt is on the rocks, even though they clearly like each other and are on friendly terms.Bottom line is that Fireproof takes on a mind of its own. Readers are given quick glimpses into the killers mindset, while also following an over eager reporter who has become his own story. In the end, readers are left knowing that this story isn't over with, and there are plenty of victims that have been left by the road side, near highways, rest areas, and truck stops that need to be investigated by Maggie and Tully. We also know that the killer isn’t quite finished with “Magpie” yet.Overall, this story moves along at a brisk pace. I'm not sure what the future holds for this series or even Maggie's relationship with Benjamin. Maggie has had a hard time over the course of ten novels. One can only hope when the time comes to give Maggie a HEA that she finds solace in the fact that she did her job the best way she knew how, and didn't allow anyone to change her way of thinking.
