California Fire and Life: A Suspense Thriller (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

First, let me thank Gary Griffiths for turning me on to the novels of Don Winslow, especially California Fire and Life. All to often, the really good customer book critics of this website receive nothing in the way of a thank you from either Amazon.com, or from the people who read their reviews. Gary loves books and he writes great reviews. I owe him one for letting me know about this unbelievable author, who clearly deserves to be on The New York Times Bestseller List for not only this particular novel, but also for The Dawn Patrol and The Winter of Frankie Machine (Robert DeNiro is turning this into a major motion picture, due 2010).Now, as DeNiro is perfect for the character of Frankie Machine, Viggo Mortensen is definitely suited for the character of Jack Wade. This is a man who once worked for the Sheriff's Department in San Diego as a fire investigator. Though he was supposed to remain unattached to his work, but one case got to him and ruined his career when he beat the confession out of a dirt bag who burned down a warehouse for the Russian mob, accidentally killing an old guard. A witness saw it, but if the witness is called to testified, Jack knows that the mob will have him killed. His only solution is to get a confession out of the man he knows set the fire. The whole thing, however, backfires on Jack and he finds himself fired from the Sheriff's Department. A few months later, California Fire and Life Insurance hires him to work for them as a fire investigation. Everything goes great for twelve years, until Jack has to investigate the fire at Nicky Vale's mansion. It doesn't take Jack long to come to the conclusion that the fire is arson and that Vale's wife was intentionally murdered. The challenge is how to prove it. Also, what Jack doesn't know is that Nicky is a Russian immigrant who belonged to the KGB and served in Afghanistan, torturing prisoners for the pleasure of it. He then served almost two years in a Russian prison in order to infiltrate the mob, surviving multiple attacks on his life. When he finally got to the United States and joined the Russian mob in Southern California, Nicky decided to branch out for himself by killing the people who stood in his way. So, he's not afraid of Jack Wade and may be more of a match than Wade realizes. Add to this the fact that Vale's wife was the half-sister of Jack's former lover and Nicky wants her dead, too, plus Jack is being told to stand down by everybody he comes into contact with and you have an explosive situation ready to erupt because Jack has no intention of letting Nicky get away with anything, especially the murder of his wife.California Fire and Life has blockbuster written all of it, and it should have been at the top of every bestseller list in existence. Don Winslow knows how to create compelling characters that you care for and can see in your mind's eye. He knows how to keep a reader glued to his seat with twist and turns and subplots that keep a person guessing about what's going to happen next. The ending is never a let down as with some authors. Winslow always manages to deliver a one-two-three punch to gut with every single ending, leaving the reader feeling drained, yet wanting more.This is third book I've read by Winslow, and it's a winner in every sense of the word. You won't go wrong with California Fire and Life, or The Dawn Patrol or The Winter of Frankie Machine. Hell, this is what makes up for the long hours spent writing free reviews that hardly anybody ever reads. When you run across an author like Don Winslow, you want to share him with everybody because writers like this don't come along very often. Highly Recommended!!!

Winslow plunges into his stories with an abundance of twisted characters, convoluted (and uncanny) plots and eccentric protagonists, like Jack Wade, former Sheriff's Department Fire Investigator, now claims investigator for California Fire and Life. Raised on the southern California coast, Jack is a dedicated surfer, his home ground Dana Point, where land development has reached the once-protected headlands, greedy investors obsessed with building on the last remaining coastal area untouched by cluttered condominiums and multi-million dollar McMansions. Currently wed to his surfing lifestyle, Wade has supported his lifelong passion for the last twelve years by applying his investigative skills on claims for his employer, former plans of career and marriage shattered by the duplicity of a former partner and self-sabotage.When Jack is directed to a claim at one of the few remaining houses on Bluffside Drive, just above Dana Strand Beach, he is chagrined to be greeted by his nemesis, Brian "Accidental" Bentley of the Sheriff's Department, who demands Jack cosign the fire as accidental. The fact that the soon-to-be-divorced and once beautiful mother of two, Pamela Vale, lies charred in the remains of her former home is no deterrent to Bentley, who brooks no dissension from Wade. True to his nature, a purist in all things fire-related, Jack refuses to be intimidated, determined to forge ahead with his usual thorough examination of the burned area, the majestic old home decimated by the raging flames that trapped Pamela Vale.Notifying Pamela's husband, Nicky Vale, Jack is troubled not only by the man's cool response, but by the successful Orange County real estate developer's urgency to get the claim settled quickly, including reimbursement for the many antique pieces the couple collected over the years of their marriage. Although Jack can't put his finger on the exact source of his discomfort with Nicky Vale, when Pam's sister points an incriminating finger at Nicky during the funeral service and accuses him of murder, Jack is seduced by his emotions and his intuition, the investigation leading down dangerous roads, where violence is a natural response to conflict; but the die is cast, Wade unable and unwilling to avoid his fate, his finely honed instincts on the trail of a killer.Winslow delivers a deceptively laid back thriller that is riddled with betrayal, brutality and the harsh realities of the criminal world, set against the pristine beaches of the California coast as it meets the Pacific Ocean, Nature's beauty belying the treachery of the merchants of death masquerading as successful members of a glittering society. From the local haunts Jack visits on his quest for answers to the Vietnamese gang bangers in Garden Grove's Little Saigon, the criminal enterprise of the Russian mob, insurance fraud, the hallowed halls of corporate greed and the collision of a booming economy with a failing market, all converge in this great conflagration of reinvented lives, lost souls, love and debauchery in sunny southern California. Masterfully manipulating his plot, Winslow creates an inexhaustible supply of brutal and corrupt individuals and a couple of heroes, Jack Wade's intransigence the only thing in their way. Luan Gaines/ 2007.

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!

My first Don Winslow, out of curiosity. It took some getting into with the very short chapters and a style that seemed to owe a lot to movie script writing. If I compare it with George Pelecanos, a real script writer, this does not compare; George is definitely the tops. I did finish this and will try another but it may end there. As a fairly avid reader of US crime fiction, I think I’m used to some of the violence that is frequently present but this teetered on the edge of gratuitous far too often for me. It seemed a lazy way to deal with almost all the unwanted characters. I saw why the lengthy description of fire was included but I sped through it as it was not of interest. Whatever the reviews are, for me this is not alongside my favourites (John Sandford, James Lee Burke, George Pelecanos, Michael Connolly, sometimes Robert Crais)

Oh dear, I have just finished this wonderful book which I wish could have gone on and on. I wouldn't like to pick out which of Don Winslow's books is my favourite but this one is right up there. Please stop checking out the reviews for California Fire and Life right now and buy it, brilliant story. If this is your first Don Winslow book its one hellova place to start. ENJOY.

I cannot believe this is the same author who wrote the excellent,The Force. The California's writing style i found to be very childish, packed full of every nuance of the research he did, there was very little distinction between the characters and the dialogue was awful. If i could only get a refund.

A strange book.Got a bit unnecessarily technical.I gave 4 stars because it was a very easy fast moving read-borderline unputdownable.But where it went wrong was that there was just too much killing-and it took the shine off the book.In the end,I wasn’t quite sure what was going on