Fireplay Steve P. Vincent

This will be a short review, but it was a short novella. Only 53 pages according to Amazon. This one features justice. It’s the prequel to the Jack Emery series. Jack is a war journalist, and in this novella, he’s embedded with a group of marines in Afghanistan when he stumbles upon a hot story. So hot, people will kill to keep it from going to press.

The opening scene is odd. It’s not Jack’s POV, it’s a prisoner’s POV. And what happens to the prisoner is strange. The beginning almost has a supernatural feel to it, but that isn’t carried through. Maybe the hand of providence, as I didn’t see any references to God.

Honestly, this isn’t my type of book. I’m not that into military fiction. The story moved along okay. Not a whole lot of description. Just the basics. Given the unique setting, Afghanistan and a military prison, I would have expected more scene description. The book blurb describes it as “action packed”. There is some action. Don’t agree with the packed part.

The ending is too deus ex machina for me. But Vincent couldn’t kill off his series character in the prequel. I’m not sure where this is going with the series, but it’s a series that will be on the back burner for me.

Some profanity, no sex, and the violence, considering it’s a war zone, is not graphic. I’ll rate it above Nowhere Safe, but not above anything else yet this year.

1. Every Dead Thing by John Connolly
2. Several Deaths Later by Ed Gorman
3. Citadel (Palladium Wars Book 3) by Marko Kloos
4. Fireplay by Steve P. Vincent
5. Nowhere Safe by Kate Bold

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