Huh. I didn't think this would be so rare on librarything.

Spoilers abound.

On the one hand the characters are pretty sympathetic and interesting. I found the book a little bit slow. The actual story maybe wasn't so interesting.

There were two things that bugged me. The whole thing with her best friend and his new romance was weird, and then after he told her he had dumped the woman because the woman didn't like her, I don't think he appeared again in the book. And also it became obvious who the murderer was.

Or maybe the other thing that bothered me was the people nagging her & her nagging herself about forgetting the boyfriend who had left her. Even after two months she missed him.... Sometimes I think we're supposed to have disposable relationships along with disposable everything else.

Weather in Texas often is one of two extremes--- flood or fire. It has been a couple years since the floods came to Southwest Texas. Now it has been 9 months since rain fell in the desert area and now wildfire is the threat to Artemis and the surrounding area. The threat comes from the north and south with Artemis trapped in the middle. Evacuations are ordered for parts of Arroyo County, but not everyone will agree to leave. This area of southwest Texas where folks are used to hard times, desert conditions, and relying on themselves and their ingenuity to survive, makes for a people to don’t turn away from a fight.

In the aftermath of the fires that spare the home of Artemis Police Chief Josie Gray, a body is found in the remains of the badly damaged home of Billy and Brenda Nix. If his wife and manager, Brenda, is to be believed Billy is about to make it big with a Nashville music contract. Billy is old school country and sings while playing guitar. Both he and his wife evacuated, according to some of the locals, but neither one is answering their cell phone. They may be up in Austin lining up future events or somewhere else. In the chaos of the evacuation they were seen at least once, but nobody really knows where they are or why they would not be answering their cell phones.

The location of the Nixes, the identity of the body, and figuring out what happened should be Police Chief Josie Gray’s priority and focus. A focus that isn’t easy to maintain, as thanks to the events in Wrecked, her longtime boyfriend has packed up and left. Getting kidnapped by a drug cartel can kind of put a damper on the whole romance thing. Four months later and normalcy is a foreign concept for both her and Dillion.

Firebreak is the fourth in a series that began with the award winning The Territory. This latest mystery features once again the deep characters and desert beauty present in the earlier books as well as the complicated cases Police Chief Josie Gray and her team must solve. This is a series best read in order as there are references to earlier events in each novel. The books are very good and so is Firebreak. If this series is new to you, it will be another year before Tricia Fields has another so get to work as you have some very good books to read.

Firebreak
Tricia Fields
http://www.triciafields.com
Minotaur Books (A Thomas Dunne Book)
http://www.minotaurbooks.com
March 2015
ISBN# 978-1-250-05505-7
Hardback (available in e-book)
288 Pages
$25.99

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2015 ( )

This was a new author for me. I enjoyed this story because the story kept moving forward and the characters seemed to be "real" people. Only right before the author revealed it, did I figure out who had killed Ferris. The hints as to what had happened to Josie in the past stories is causing me to read the other "Josie Gray" stories this author as written. ( )

I enjoyed reading this book. I received it free from Minotaur Books, the publisher, through the Goodreads giveaway program. This book takes place in the West Texas desert town of Artemis. There is a dangerous wildfire threatening the the. It is eventually contained with only a few home burnt up. One house that was almost completely destroyed has a body in it. Police Josie Gray investigates and realizes that this house fire was not part of the wildfire burn area.

How she pieces together the murder with only a 3 person department makes for an engrossing mystery. Not until almost the end did I realize who the killer was. She is also dealing with personal problems--the love of her life left her after he was kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel(subject of a previous book in this series).
This is book 4 in the series and I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the previous books, but it can be read as a stand alone.
I give it 4 of 5 stars. ( )