Pyro: A Novel of Suspense Review

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(More customer reviews)Paul Wollf, Emerson's newest protagonist, is another superlative example of a deeply flawed individual who wins the reader's sympathy despite some character traits which, if Wolff were a real person, would make a sane person keep him at the proverbial barge pole's distance. But make no mistake, Emerson has not recreated his previous hero, Swope, in Wollf. Where Swope was a mindless womanizer, Wollf is a shy guy who knows he's not good enough for a good woman. Where Swope was a popular guy around the firehouse, Wollf holds the entire world at bay, his sternly leashed violence like a guard dog between him and his fellow creatures. But as in "Into the Inferno" Emerson does tell a thumping good action yarn all the while interlacing it with the hero's movement towards self-discovery. If Swope was the guy you hoped would be taking you home after the party, then Wollf is the guy you hope you're waking up with on a quiet Sunday morning.
As always, Emerson's well-honed descriptions and his ear for dialogue boost a story that in less gifted hands might end up merely workmanlike. Example: "I suck dark smoke all the way up. It tastes like the undercarriage of a fertilizer truck might." What an image! Makes me want a swig of Listerine bad!
Another plus for this author -- and some may disagree with me on this, but so what? They'll be wrong! -- is that he is so NOT afraid to stretch his skills, I mean really work at his craft, and the proof is in how he told this story from so many different points of view and still made the story cohesive and kept the flow of events and emotions constant. That can't have been easy, and it had to have been a conscious choice right from the beginning of the book.
I wish I wasn't going to have to wait another year or more for the next book by Earl Emerson. And I wish he'd do another book tour through the Midwest sometime! Why does the left coast get all the breaks?
Thanks, too, Mr. Emerson, for the opening quote from Elmer Slezak. I miss him!

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