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addypap's review
4.0
Good story, good narration. Hard to follow all the characters at times. Moved fast, enjoyed. Very, very good character development.
ja_hopkins's review
5.0
Jack Wade is an insurance investigator, working for the titular California Fire And Life, a big company insurance company in southern California. He is the quintessential work to live guy who really wants to surf, but he has a gift for reading fires, and he is the best insurance adjustor in the business. The fact I know what an insurance adjustor is explains just how good this book is!
Pamela Vale, a beautiful young woman with the requisite family and husband dies in a fire at her home. It seems like an accident, but Wade is not convinced. Pamela’s husband Nicky, is hardly devastated and Wades investigation quickly finds inconsistencies but there are still people in CFaL seemingly keen to pay the claim. Wade refuses to be bullied and as he digs deeper, he stumbles across a wider conspiracy involving Nicky Vale, husband, property developer and immigrant living the American Dream.
It is hard to oversell this book in my view. How Winslow can make the minutiae of fire investigation as compelling as he does is beyond me. I could not wait to read more about accelerants, char patterns and dig outs (you’ll see!). The characters are three dimensional, we learn about both Wade and Vale’s past, and what has brought them to this point. I will certainly be buying more from Don Winslow’s back catalogue!
Pamela Vale, a beautiful young woman with the requisite family and husband dies in a fire at her home. It seems like an accident, but Wade is not convinced. Pamela’s husband Nicky, is hardly devastated and Wades investigation quickly finds inconsistencies but there are still people in CFaL seemingly keen to pay the claim. Wade refuses to be bullied and as he digs deeper, he stumbles across a wider conspiracy involving Nicky Vale, husband, property developer and immigrant living the American Dream.
It is hard to oversell this book in my view. How Winslow can make the minutiae of fire investigation as compelling as he does is beyond me. I could not wait to read more about accelerants, char patterns and dig outs (you’ll see!). The characters are three dimensional, we learn about both Wade and Vale’s past, and what has brought them to this point. I will certainly be buying more from Don Winslow’s back catalogue!
travistn's review
2.0
Interesting premise involving a Insurance fire inspector as the protagonist. It is derailed by too many coincidences and outlandish conspiratorial bad guys.
Didn't feel I wasted my time reading this, but not passing it on to anyone either
Didn't feel I wasted my time reading this, but not passing it on to anyone either
ericwelch's review
4.0
Reviewed at http://rarebits.blogspot.com/2013/11/california-fire-and-life-by-don-winslow.html and http://www.librarything.com/work/413643/details/102498215
darwin8u's review
3.0
"You don't get personal, you don't get emotional. Whatever you do, you don't get involved. You do the job and the rest of the time you surf."
- Don Winslow, California Fire and Life
The book moved and sometimes it even burned. This isn't top-shelf Winslow, but if you are looking for a quick summer read while the grass dries up and the Santa Ana winds are blowing hard and you are wondering if your home is fully covered for fire, perhaps this is the book for you. Or not. This book had a couple strengths and a couple weaknesses.
Strengths:
1. Winslow can write. He understand storytelling and knows how to develop characters and push the narrative quickly along. After page one, the gas is poured and the match is essentially lit.
2. Winslow can research. He loves the details. He enjoys the technical aspects of the books he is writing. More often than not he seems to get it right, or at least close enough that the average reader isn't going to catch onto areas he is guessing at. My guess? Fire science is not quite as air tight as he makes it seem, but still Winslow sets it up well enough for the book to engage.
3. Winslow respects the reader. He isn't condescending, but he still understands what he is writing is fiction and essentially entertainment. So, he entertains.
Weaknesses:
1. Sometimes he takes short-cuts that seem don't quite hold up. In this book it is probably the back foot of the plot. He is focused on the fire, corruption, and the Russians and less focused on the law, Insurance, and bureaucracy, so he tends to compress and make some pretty wild jumps. But...OK. Fine. It is a minor point.
2. Sex. While he is unapologetic, unabashed, and unashamed about his sex scenes, his boldness would almost work better in smaller doses. Two or three scenes make it more gratuitous and less bold. He doesn't write poorly about sex (writing about sex is HARD) but he doesn't quite know when to turn it off (or at least down).
- Don Winslow, California Fire and Life
The book moved and sometimes it even burned. This isn't top-shelf Winslow, but if you are looking for a quick summer read while the grass dries up and the Santa Ana winds are blowing hard and you are wondering if your home is fully covered for fire, perhaps this is the book for you. Or not. This book had a couple strengths and a couple weaknesses.
Strengths:
1. Winslow can write. He understand storytelling and knows how to develop characters and push the narrative quickly along. After page one, the gas is poured and the match is essentially lit.
2. Winslow can research. He loves the details. He enjoys the technical aspects of the books he is writing. More often than not he seems to get it right, or at least close enough that the average reader isn't going to catch onto areas he is guessing at. My guess? Fire science is not quite as air tight as he makes it seem, but still Winslow sets it up well enough for the book to engage.
3. Winslow respects the reader. He isn't condescending, but he still understands what he is writing is fiction and essentially entertainment. So, he entertains.
Weaknesses:
1. Sometimes he takes short-cuts that seem don't quite hold up. In this book it is probably the back foot of the plot. He is focused on the fire, corruption, and the Russians and less focused on the law, Insurance, and bureaucracy, so he tends to compress and make some pretty wild jumps. But...OK. Fine. It is a minor point.
2. Sex. While he is unapologetic, unabashed, and unashamed about his sex scenes, his boldness would almost work better in smaller doses. Two or three scenes make it more gratuitous and less bold. He doesn't write poorly about sex (writing about sex is HARD) but he doesn't quite know when to turn it off (or at least down).
clambook's review
3.0
Good audiobook for the gym, part procedural, part primer on insurance fraud and arson, presumably from Winslow's days as a private investigator.
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