Fireman caught in the heat of passion

The "Smoke Jumper" is Connor Ford, a gritty, loyal and adventurous firefighter.

Not for him suburban chip pan fires and cats in trees - his patch is the wild expanses of Montana, where the only way to get to a forest fire is to parachute in and hope the wind doesn't dump you on top of it.

But things really start to hot up when Connors's best friend Ed falls in love with a woman whom Connor doesn't trust, but whom he also lusts after.

There's enough drama and excitement in this book to make it utterly

un-put-downable, and following Connor and Ed's turbulent life yields plenty of unexpected twists and turns.

Nicholas Evans burst upon the scene with his first novel, The Horse Whisperer, which Hollywood bought for big bucks and turned into a successful film. He followed that up with with The Loop.

An Englishman, he writes with command and understanding of the environment his characters inhabit, and makes them real instead of make-believe people.

Annie Dendy