Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts (2005, Hardcover)

The blaze that night at her family's pizzeria changed young Reena Hale's life. Neighbors and relatives would help the Hales rebuild. The Baltimore authorities would arrest the arsonist responsible. But as Reena beheld the fire's brutal beauty and destructive power, her destiny began to take shape. She would understand and master its terrible force-and one day become an investigator herself.

But she is not the only one fascinated by the flames. Someone else sees their power-and is obsessed not with conquering the fire but with controlling it, owning it, using it to exact vicious revenge . . .

When Reena finally joins the arson unit, her strength and wits are constantly tested-although sometimes the job seems like a snap compared to her love life. But she can't always blame the men-after all, a soot-caked woman barking orders and smelling of smoke isn't the biggest turn-on in the world. Then she meets Bo Goodnight, who seems different. He's been trying to find Reena for years, and now that she is close enough to touch, he has no intention of letting go.

Nor does the man who has begun to haunt Reena's life-with taunting phone calls and a string of horrifying crimes. And as Reena tries desperately to trace the origins-of the calls, the fires, the hatred aimed in her direction-she will step into the worst inferno she has ever faced.

From the incomparable Nora Roberts, Blue Smoke is a tale of gut-level fear, human triumph, and the bonds that carry us through our darkest times.

** Nora Roberts at her best! I have to admit, I haven't finished the book but, will write more when I have. The first 5 chapters have sucked me in! ***

Added 10/5/05 - As promised my review. Buy this book! It's one of Nora's best. It has just the right amount of suspense, romance and family drama!

Okay, perhaps, I have read her two worst books, but so far after reading Blue Smoke, I'm scratching my head, wondering, what's the big deal? Big deal? Nora Roberts is supposed to be a big deal. She cranks out a new book every other day, each one a best seller. My wife has read every book she has written including those by Robert's pseudonym, JD Robb. Oh yeah, that's right I read a book by JD Robb too. That makes three mediocre books.

I should have known, when my wife, who considers Roberts' books, light reading, gave Blue Smoke to me after she had finished ninety percent of it. She said it was getting too violent for her and is more to my liking, so what the heck.

Is it awful? No! Is it good? No! Is it just right? I suppose. I'm not sorry I read it. I just expected more from the biggest writer this side of J. K. Rowling (whose appeal, I also don't get).

Blue Smoke

Blue Smoke is a story about a young woman named Reena, short for Catarina, Hale. The story starts one night in 1985 when Reena is twelve years old. The family business, a pizza parlor - Sirico's, has just gone up in flames. It turns out that the fire was intentionally set by a neighbor of the Hale's named Joe Pastorelli, with whom Reena's father, Gibson, had words about his son Joey's assault on Reena, the day previous.

Pastorelli eventually, goes to prison and Reena decides she wants to be a fire investigator when she grows up.

I should mention here that Reena has two older sisters, Fran and Bella, as well as a younger brother, Xander. To a member, they each exhibit the comeliness of their mother, Bianca and father Gib. They are also a very close knit family, a paradigm of the ideal family, including the extended family.

Fast forward to 1992 and Reena is now in college, where she meets her first love, Josh Bolton. Tragedy strikes when Reena's lover dies in a fire, ostensibly caused by smoking in bed.

Reena goes on to become a police arson investigator but while fire has become her career, it continues to haunt her personal life as well as numerous fire related accidents are suffered by those close to her.

Conclusion

It has been several days since I read Blue Smoke, so I may not remember everything. I thought the story was decent. It wasn't confusing and moved along at a good pace, in a nice chronological order. The writing was good, except I do remember a couple of times Roberts' didn't seem to finish a thought. She also lost (confused) me in a few more places. No big deal, I just glanced over those spots.

One of the things that bothered me, was the apparent naivety of the main character. She was a detective, a fire investigator and she couldn't connect the numerous fire incidents in her life, to her. I thought detectives' motto was there's no such thing as coincidences.

Another thing. I'm probably not giving anything away that you haven't figured out, by saying that Josh Bolton was murdered. Josh didn't smoke and Reena told the investigators so. They said, maybe he smoked and didn't want Reena to know it. Come on when people smoke you can smell it on their breath. What's more they were lovers. It's a long time ago, but when I smoked, the first thing I did after making love was reach for a cigarette. Wouldn't an investigator have checked it out with friends, family etc.?

That's just a couple of the holes and loose ends that I found in this novel. Perhaps in her straight romance novels, these oversights are no big deal or don't come up. Final rating 3.25 stars

No question about it Nora Roberts is a gifted storyteller, as her prolific selection of novels can attest to! How does she write so many so fast? Never the less!

This story really doesn't pick up speed until 3/4 of the way through. It starts off when the main character is a young girl of eleven and how a tragic event in her life carved out her destiny. But, you have to suspend your dis-belief for some of this tale, when after 20 years or so all crimes mentioned have a direct relationship to our heroine (yet she continues on totally unaware of this) Some people might think twice when in every romantic relationship they had the young lover end up dead or some possession of theirs was blown to smithereen's. It might make you connect some dots, but not our girl! Anyway, this story meanders and winds around countless family scenes of domestic goings-on: Dating, college, weddings, children, remodeling of family pizza parlors....If you like a drawn out Italian family saga...with a back drop of a psycho stalker, this is for you. But if you are ready for a faster paced thriller/suspense this might not be your cup of tea!

I still love reading every Nora Roberts novel I can get my hands on and yes... I admit to secretly watching them transformed into Lifetime movies.

I purchased this book because it was written by one of my favorite authors. In my opinion, Nora Roberts never fails to deliver a well written story with great characters, and she certainly succeeded this time. This is a great combination of romance and mystery. The story grabs you right from the start and holds you until the very end. I couldn't wait to get this book, and I could barely put the book down until I finished it. I would highly recommend this book and this author!

If you buy a Nora Roberts book, you can't go wrong. There is always plenty of suspense, action and a little love thrown in.
This book, "Blue Smoke" is another one of Nora's great one's. Once you start reading it, you can't put it down.