Iris Johansen, Firestorm

Firestorm

Iris Johansen

Bantam, April 2004, $24.95, 325 pp.

ISBN 0553803409

As a child Kerry Murphy and her mother were in their brownstone when their home caught fire but only Kerry made it out alive. She was in a coma for more than a year and as the years past the precognitive powers she woke up with became stronger. Her particular skill was catching arsonists because when she was at the scene, she was able to psychically see what the criminal did; she often helped the police catch the perpetrator.

Brad Silver saw his brother and his sister-in-law die in a car that spontaneously combusted thanks to FIRESTORM, a black ops weapon of mass destruction. Trask intends to sell the weapon to a foreign buyer but before he does, he wants to kill the scientists and the politicians who opposed the existence of the weapon. Silver, a high level telepathic, coerces Kerry into helping him track down the man who killed his brother and who could plunge the world into Armageddon. While working together, these two independent, tough minded individuals find that they are linked together by more than just a common cause.

Iris Johansen has written another exciting thriller that will land on the New York Times Bestseller list. The two protagonists find time in between murder and mayhem to fall in love but Kerry is afraid that loving Silver will mean giving up her independence. It takes a tragedy to show her how wrong she is but readers will adore her and her phony arson dog Sam because both have plenty of heart.

Harriet Klausner