Sunday, November 22, 2009
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Murder/Mystery and Thriller Book Reviews

Jill Wellington and Edna Mae Holm: Fireworks

Rating:

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Before getting into the story and characters that make up Fireworks it will probably be helpful to give a short explanation of synchronicity, which is central to the entire book!

From what I can gather the idea is simple. We all have spirit guides that help us out, usually through some sort of dream, vision or another form of dejavu. You don't have to be special, it happens to everyone all the time. For example, if you are trying to find someone and you walk around the corner, and there they are - that's synchronicity. Another example is the idea that you are never late (apparently, but try telling my boss that). You may be stuck in traffic but there is a reason and you will turn up on time in the terms of the universe (can see this catching on at the office though). I'm not sure I'm convinced about all this, but then we all have our own beliefs and hate I labels!

Now for the story behind Fireworks...

Webb Hannis is a Detroit Cop with a good record and his hunches for cases keeps it that way. Marc Lazare has been murdered at one of the professional firework shows the Lazare family is famous for and Hannis has been given the case. It's a high-pressure case with a lot of media attention, but Hannis also has to get his head around the fact that he can see his spirit guide (who he didn't even realise existed), a guide called Samuel.

Samuel teases a frustrated Hannis throughout the book, only giving him glimpses of information or loose clues, all under the banner of synchronicity. But everything has a purpose and the clues are good if you know how to listen. So Hannis has to learn, and fast.

The Lazare family aren't helping much either. No one wants to tell him the complete truth, only bits. But why? They aren't all in on it are they? Most of the family members have a motive, or at least potentially.

I felt Fireworks was fairly well written for the most part. It's not a hard read, and doesn't challenge you much but for an easy-going book – not a problem. One of my main gripes is the way in which the ideas and concepts of synchronicity have been worked in. I understand that it's central to the story, I just felt it could have been done more subtly and cleverly. As it stands you almost get a big neon sign saying "this is where we make a point about synchronicity". However, if you think you might be interested in synchronicity but don't know anything about it this might be a nice introduction.

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