When a publisher is generous enough to provide me with an ARC of a new release, it always pains me not to be able to say something nice about it. But in all honesty, in this case, I simply cannot.

I read Eskin's first book, THE REFLECTING POOL, and liked it a lot. Then I read the second, HEAD SHOT, and liked it quite a bit less. FIRETRAP I did not like at all.

The first two-thirds of the book were promising, despite several egregious geographical errors regarding Washington DC that should have been caught in the editorial process. The final third of the book, however, was a shambles. In a frantic effort to tie together all sorts of disparate elements and bring the damn thing in for some kind of a landing, the narrative became so cartoonish that the book dissolved into a downright silly, nearly incoherent mess. The weird action scene set for some incongruous reason on an abandoned oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was particularly ridiculous.

Perhaps this book was just meant to be a clever satire of cop novels and a send-up of Washington DC, and I simply missed the whole point. I hope so. Otherwise, it offers little to recommend it.

Amazing story and protagonist. Third book with Detective Zorn, and I’ve already picked up the first two to read immediately. Big Pharma is the bad guy in this story and so many characters are brought in that Zorn, with his own way of doing things, is constantly finding himself in dangerous situations. Starting with a burning car, progressing through a murder disguised as a mugging, a kidnapping, a firing from his job, suicide, and more, Zorn finds a way through the maze in his fight for the right.