Jon Loomis, former fellow and current professor at UWEC, has a new book
Fire Season. Booklist gave it a starred review:
Loomis, Jon (Author)
Jul 2012. 304 p. Minotaur, hardcover, $24.99. (9780312668136).
A virtual crime wave in Provincetown, Massachusetts, starts with the
slaughter of the seals kept at a seaside restaurant. Then arson-induced
fires escalate in size, and authorities don’t know whether to look
for thrill-seeking teens or a business owner after insurance. When the
disembodied head of the local nursing-home director—who just told acting
police chief Frank Coffin he was kicking out his dementiaafflicted,troublemaking mother—is found in the lobster tank of another
restaurant, it’s almost enough to make Coffin start smoking again,
except that he’s trying to get more healthy for the sake of his pregnant
girlfriend, Jamie, and their unborn daughter. Through sleep deprivation
and stress, the intuitive Coffin and his sidekick, Sergeant Lola
Winters, persevere, continuing their lighthearted yet caring bantering.
In Loomis’ P-town, cross-dressing male tourists are called Tall Ships
(after the annual festival), and the noise of reconstruction of the
aging town hall causes the female town manager to move a high-powered
meeting
to the ladies’ room. The third in this series is fulfilling
the promise of the earlier books (High Season, 2007, and Mating Season,
2009), with its sharp dialogue, keen sense of place, and a protagonist
who’s reminiscent of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser but more of an everyman.
Great entertainment.
— Michele Leber
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