The Wildfire Season

This novel deserves a wider audience. Sort of a thriller combined with an action-adventure story, the novel is a welcome change from the cliched plots that pepper both genres. Although the story is a wild ride (the race to escape the rapidly spreading fire, not to mention the angry grizzly and the guy with the gun, is intense and memorable), the novel's strength comes from its well-developed characters and their interactions. The principle characters are all flawed or broken or both, and their issues are just as compelling as the wildfire that threatens them. Few novels succeed so well in blending the "story first" sensibility of genre fiction and the "character first" sensibility that drives mainstream fiction.

This novel was a surprise, what I expected in a well-plotted mystery enhanced by the basic themes of human and nature, betrayal, tragedy, redemption and the unpredictability of a forest fire on the rampage, a small flame simmering over a landscape, eventually dancing from tree to tree in a remote area of Yukon wilderness. Caught in the fire, the inhabitants of Ross River will face the fury of an out-of-control burn, their intimate personal struggles laid bare in a stunning denouement. From the first, from the eager, hungry tongues of flame that nibble on the dry branches, subdued by nighttime damp, to the electric atmosphere of the local bar, where a group of outcasts establish an uneasy peace, this story is fueled on raw energy, jealousy and rage, the tensions building as surely as the teasing blaze that twirls along the edges of its intent. Lead firefighter Miles McEwan has finally retreated to the furthest corner of the world where he can exist on a minimum of commitment, his body half-clear, half-scarred by a fire that almost took his life along with his future. Marriage plans with Alex abruptly shattered by a psyche damaged as deeply inside as outside, Miles chose to run from a situation that overwhelmed him. Now, five years later, the smoky gloom of the bar is severed by a slice of sunlight and the entrance of a woman and a little girl, hand in hand. After five summers of searching, Alex has found Miles, come for her day of reckoning, their daughter's hand held in her fierce grip. Miles realizes the time has come to face the consequences of what he thought was pride, but is really cowardice, at least in Alex's eyes. In this place, at this time, everything comes together, a long-time feud between a local guide, Wade, and Miles. Wade and Miles are eerily similar, except one has crossed the boundaries of a Faustian bargain, the other not yet committed to a soulless existence. As Alex bravely confronts Miles, purified by her anger, Rachel, her daughter, touches Miles' scarred face lovingly; elsewhere, a grizzly sow and her pups are trapped by Wade and his partner's wealthy hunter, setting yet another critical element of the drama in motion. Miles searches desperately for redemption, for one more chance as the ferocity of nature threatens, the world made small in a battle to survive the flames one more time. In wonderful, insightful prose, Pyper delivers on every count, man against nature and a formidable enemy to find his finer self. Luan Gaines/2008.

I bought this book thinking it was not a novel. It it a great read. The story line keeps you interested and you really feel for the characters. My husband is a wildland fire fighter so I know the terms used in the story. The ending is a total surprise.

Miles McEwan moved to literally the end of the road when he relocated to Ross River in the Yukon to become the tiny hamlet's fire chief as he hides from his past though he cannot elude the fiery burn scars that mark and mock his face. Though he drinks a lot to somewhat bury his mental anguish that haunts him, Miles is also aware that he must remain somewhat sober as this is the area's inferno season when forest fires tend to go out of control. However, this particular season is going be even more chaotic than any Miles can remember. His angry bitter former lover Alex and their five-year-old daughter Rachel have arrived in town; he does not want to see them because they would see him and what has become of him. There is also a bear hunting expedition that is foolish at a time when several fires nearby are blazing. When these separate conflagrations consolidate, the town is endangered. While Miles is distracted by his ex and the inferno, someone sees an opportunity to use the grizzly hunters and the fires to commit murder. THE WILDFIRE SEASON is a terrific descriptive look at the dangers of the wilderness used as great background to a fine thriller. The fire scenes are superbly described so that the audience will feel the heat and peril facing heroes. Miles is a solid protagonist who wants no human contact except for his bartender serving him drinks, his firefighting team only in an official capacity, and rescues. The murder subplot augments a tense graphic tale that hooks readers from start to finish. Harriet Klausner

Miles is a firefighter badly burned in a forest fire. He goes to the Yukon to escape his old life, but is haunted by the ghost of a young man killed in a fire. One day he gets a surprise visit from his ex-girlfriend and their daughter,whom he has never met. Before they can leave a massive fire traps them, along with the rest of the town and Miles is forced to go looking for them alone when the rescue attempt is called off. I really enjoyed this book, give it a read.