Deception Pass, by Earl Emerson

(0345400682)

This was on the donation cart last month, signed by the author like the last title I read by Emerson. I like the way he writes. I like the fact that he is apparently still a firefighter even though he's had a good run of novels now. Mostly, I like his characters. This is a Thomas Black story, chief of a small fire department in the northwest.

Honestly, I read this book nearly a month ago, and it's becoming difficult to remember the plot. Suffice to say that I liked it at the time, and remember not being able to put it down. Obviously, it's a mystery/p.i. thriller. Black is not-quite noir, and is pretty amusing in very unusual instances. This book did nothing to convince me that I should stop looking for Emerson's books. What I need to do is go back and fill in the ones I haven't read and try to get them in order.

My favorite memory of his books is one character saying that people who turn their windshield wipers on in less than a full-on downpour are wusses. I think of that every time I turn on the wipers. It's been probably 10 years since I read that book. sigh ;-)