Shawn Grady's "Through the Fire"

I’ve posted a review of Shawn Grady’s Through the Fire over at Amazon, and I’ll repeat what I’ve said before about the book –it’s a terrific story. I love how Grady writes – it’s terse, concise, powerful and action-packed. The novel almost effortlessly pulls the reader into the story – and that’s where you stay.

There’s a little romance here – the hero’s fiancé calls off the engagement at the beginning of the book and he finds another love interest not too much later – but it’s not the primary plot of the story. That honor goes to the fires being set by an arsonist.

Beyond the writing, I liked how Grady draws his characters – they’re real, multi-dimensional people, with the kinds of problems and flaws shared by all of us. The hero of the story, Aidan O’Neill, has problems and issues beyond the failed engagement. He’s never been able to deal with the death of his father, he’s developing a drinking problem and he’s suspicious of both his best friend and the new love interest in his life. He journey to discover the identity of the arsonist coincides and becomes one with his journey toward faith.

Through the Fire is a great read, and an entertaining one – but one that also makes you think, about what firefighters risk to protect us, what goes through the minds of arsonists, and what firefighting work is actually like. And Grady makes sure that when those tones sound the alarm at the fire station, we slide right down the pole with the firefighters.