Count To Ten

From Publishers Weekly Rose cranks up the heat in more ways than one for recurring heroine Det. Mia Mitchell, last seen in You Can't Hide , to deliver another winning romantic mystery thriller. When a series of arsons turns out to hide a homicide, Mia teams up with Chicago Fire Department Lt. Reed Solliday to track down the firebug killer. Still reeling from her father's death and her last case, which landed her partner, Abe, in the hospital, Mia's not pleased to be teaming up with someone new—especially with Abe's assailant still on the loose. Reed has his doubts as well, suspecting that Mia isn't ready to be back on assignment. As the investigation proceeds and the two divulge their troubled pasts, they find themselves warming to each other—just in time for Mia to become the next target for the flame-happy madman. Rose's characters aren't exactly fresh—she's the tough-but-vulnerable cop's daughter, he's the gruff-but-lovable heavy—but Rose gives them plenty of room to develop as the tense procedural escalates. Emotional subplots, engaging secondary characters and a string of red herrings will keep readers hooked. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Product Description In all his years in the Chicago Fire Department, Lieutenant Reed Solliday ahs never experienced anything like this recent outbreak of house fires - devastating, vicious and in one case, homicidal. He has another problem - his new partner, Detective Mia Mitchell. She's brash, bossy, and taking the case in a direction he never imagined. Mia's instincts tell her the arsonist is making this personal. And as the infernos become more deadly, one look at the victims' tortured faces convinces her and Reed that they must work closer to catch the killer. With each new blaze, the villain ups the ante, setting firetraps for the people Reed and Mia love. The truth is almost too hot to handle: This monster's desire for death and destruction is unquenchable ... and for Mia he's started the countdown to an early grave. Fiction,General,Suspense,Romance,Contemporary,Arson,Romantic Suspense Fiction A young boy and his brother are abandoned by their mother and end up in the foster-care system. Let down by everyone who should have looked out for them, the boys fall prey to the abusers they meet. Is it any wonder one of them loses his mind and develops a taste for matches and revenge? Years later, Reed Solliday, of Chicago's Fire Department, is determined to find an arsonist whose actions have just escalated to murder. With the police now involved, Reed is paired with Detective Mia Mitchell, on her first assignment since her father's death and her partner's shooting. Solliday and Mitchell know the violence is escalating and the death toll is rising. With no apparent connection between the deaths, they are at a loss until their attention focuses on a young offenders institution and the misfits within...Take a breath. Count to ten. And watch their world explode.