A Novel of War.
Autumn 1940: London is being firebombed, unable to strike back as the Luftwaffe drones overhead. Jack Finlay, a young man notorious for his ability to fight fires, is given the task of preventing five buildings vital to Britain's war effort from being engulfed by the flames.
But resources are scarce and the mood is bleak, and Finlay himself suspicious about the real motive for his mission. And then he falls in love with a woman as unorthodox as he is: a wartime liaison as improbable as it is intense, dangerous because it makes him vulnerable as the flames, and plots, twist around him.
With its brilliantly vivid evocation of London in the Blitz, an unusual love story, an emotional heart but a cynical eye, and devastatingly good descriptions of fire (how it moves and works and destroys), this unusual and assured first novel has real appeal for men and women alike.
