4 stars out of 5
Wow - the plot of this book, the third in the series featuring arson investigators Walter Sharpe and Andrew Walker, sure has a lot of "legs." I guess that's another way of saying it was much more complex and hard to follow than that first two, at least until I'd passed the halfway point. After that, it everything started to mesh, though, and by the end, I realized how well it's written and how much I enjoyed it.There are three situations involved from the beginning: the torching of several parking garages at apartments in Hollywood on just one night, a major fire that wipes out a major section of a busy freeway and destroys illicit businesses and homeless camps littered below the overpass, and an old "connection" of Walter's - Danny Cole - who for whatever reason has formulated a plan to steal a $40 million, one-of-a-kind wristwatch from it's high-security location in Japan. Fairly early on, Walter and Andrew are called away from the garage fires to the more potentiallyl devastating freeway - but there's still a possibility the same perp could be behind both.
How Danny fares with the theft - and why he's doing it - I'll leave for readers to learn for themselves. I will say, though, that I'm one of those who, while sympathetic, rarely believe the end justifies the means. And what that means is I lost a little bit of respect for one of the characters in the book even though his actions can be deemed justifiable (and most certainly address an important issue of national concern).
As the freeway investigation begins, Walter and Andrew hook up with Lost Hills homicide detective Eve Ronin and her sidekick Duncan Pavone - always guaranteed to add some spice to the series. When the man suspected of engineering the horrific blaze turns up dead, well, that adds even more intrigue. And that's as far as I'm willing to go to not risk revealing too much - I'll just say alls well that ends well, especially when it leaves an ember or two smoldering and ready for rekindling in the next installment. Soon, please?
Meantime, many thanks once again to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy of this one.
Hidden in Smoke by Lee Goldberg (Thomas & Mercer, April 2025); 300 pp.