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Reviews
from Susan Haley
“Red
Flag Warning”
By:
Kurt Kamm
The three most
common criteria recognized as a ‘must element’ for a successful novel,
especially mysteries, are timeliness, edge-of-the-seat conflict, often
called a ‘page-turner, and believability. Character development and good
structural writing are icing on the element cake. When the author cares
enough about their story to research the topic if authenticity demands
it, you have the special filling between the layers – passion!
Fire has fascinated and mesmerized humankind
since the cave dweller. We appreciate its warmth, respect its limits, and stand
in awe of its power and intensity. Author, Kurt L. Kamm, writes a fiery story.
The flames of it reach out and draw in your consciousness. The colors of it take
over your imagination, and its heat pulls you into the inferno of it. He knows
his protagonists and has experienced the power of the fire god first hand.
In his first novel, One Foot In The Black, Mr.
Kamm took the reader into the pulse of a Wildland fire. The reader discovers the
personality of a fire through the firefighter protagonists. That story met the
elements and added the icing and filling.
But what about the personality of a serial
arsonist? The ‘firestarter’, the accelerant? What drives them to serve the fire
god? Are they driven by an evil lust? A reverent worship? Is it a lust for the
power the fire possesses? Or surrender to it as a sacrifice to the god of the
fire?
In Red Flag Warning, the firefighters are
caught in the middle of the furious battle, the capture of the arsonist and the
fighting of the fire. The arsonist may be the most difficult to stop. There is
no profile to study. No wind currents to assess, no humidity to measure. No
flash point to trace. Nothing. Leads drift into the sky like burning embers.
Does the fire possess the arsonist, burning the evidence as it consumes? Or does
the arsonist possess the fire? This is a mystery as powerful as the fire itself.
So you think you can solve a mystery? Put the
fire out? I thought I could, too. I’ve reviewed several mysteries. Excellent
ones, at that. I challenge you to solve this one. Oh, you’ll build a list of
possible suspects; you’ll turn many a rock looking for clues. You’ve learned to
read in between the smoke filled lines. Your gut tells you that you must be
missing something. Something not fitting still haunts you and your list changes,
grows and shrinks. Where is it? What is it? You are possessed by the fire! And
when you make it through the burn, there is not a rock left unturned. And still,
you’re stunned!
A page turner, timely, believable, iced with
skill and filled with passion. Red Flag Warning is a delicacy! Coming from a
fellow author - Five Stars, Mr. Kamm!
Susan Haley, Author/Editor
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