Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts 472 pages

The setting for “Chasing Fire” is Missoula, Montana. The characters are Smoke Jumpers – the Zulies. Roberts once again, researches her subject and drops her characters into details describing the training, selection and actual jumps into the fire fighting. Rowan Tripp is an experienced jumper and has been for several years. Her father, Iron Man Tripp, is a legend and her closest support. This year, as rookies follow the rigid training required for smoke jumpers a few drop out and some filter to the top of the class. Gulliver Curry is one who moves to the top. He also has his eye on Rowan. Mingled in with fighting dangerous forest fires and the budding romance there is someone murdering people from town. He/she/they also sabotage the equipment the jumper’s drop with them into the fire fight. As expected of the hero and heroine, Gull and Rowan start looking into the crimes during their downtime. One man living in town becomes a suspect but the intrepid duo doesn’t buy the reason behind the suspicion. Robert’s stories always tell how things work. She develops her characters so they flow together only leaving a slight discord around the possible criminal.