Fireproof

May 14, 2012
A serial arsonist is torching empty warehouses in areas of Washington, D.C., where the homeless take shelter in bestseller Kava’s strong 10th Maggie O’Dell novel (after 2011’s Hotwire). When the remains of two bodies, both severely beaten, turn up at the arson sites, the emotionally frayed Maggie must put the pieces together, despite being under pressure from her sadistic and politically motivated boss, injured by flying glass from an explosion, and tormented by memories of an earlier, horrific case. Might the arsonist and the killer be one and the same? FBI profiler Maggie works seamlessly with Julia Racine, a brash D.C. homicide detective with a wicked attitude, not only to track the arsonist, whose activities are escalating, but also to outfox an egotistical and ruthlessly ambitious journalist. Amid a barrel full of red herrings and a cluttered cast of characters, the suspenseful plot builds to a finale that offers an irresistible lure to Maggie’s next outing. 6-city author tour.

July 1, 2012
FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell (Hotwire, 2011, etc.) goes up against an arsonist and a murderer who may or may not be the same person. Fires are all too common in the nation's capital, but the latest blaze is worse than most. It's obviously a case of accelerant-assisted arson. An anonymous phone call sends Detective Julia Racine of the Metro Police Department to a trash container outside the building, the final resting place of a Jane Doe whose face has been bashed beyond all recognition. And there's no telling what connection, if any, the fire has to the homicide. Working the case with Detective R.J. Tully, her best friend's lover, Maggie finds an unexpected sounding board in her half brother Patrick, who's gone to work as a private firefighter for Braxton Protection. But she's about to be dumped in hot water by hungry TV reporter Jeffery Cole, who's so provoked by their brief standoff at the scene that he plans an extended on-air profile of her. As the firebug continues to roam free and Patrick begins to make tentative romantic overtures to Cole's partner, photojournalist Samantha Ramirez, Maggie must survive a series of variously bruising encounters with her one-time lover Dr. Benjamin Platt, her unstable mother, Kathleen, ancient consulting psychiatrist Dr. James Kernan and homeless accountant Cornell Stamoran. None of them brings her any closer to the arsonist, even though most readers will be way ahead of her. Kava combines the cliches of serial-arsonist fiction with Patricia Cornwell's irritating habit of ending her heroine's quests not with a bang, but a whimper. To be continued.

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February 1, 2012

Called in to investigate a series of suspicious fires--the last having left someone dead--special agent Maggie O'Dell is being pursued by a reporter who wants to make her part of the story. Meanwhile, she's getting the uncomfortable feeling that this arsonist is someone close to home. New York Times best-selling author Kava cops a six-city tour, plus giveaways on Goodreads and LibraryThing.

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