Trial by Fire
A Novel of Suspense
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4.5 • 28 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance’s journalist-turned-sleuth strives to grant a dying woman’s last request: to find the people who nearly killed her in this “perfect addition to her ongoing Ali Reynolds series” (Suspense Magazine).
When a subdivision-in-the-making goes up in flames, everyone hopes that the unfinished, unoccupied homes will yield no victims. But when an unidentified woman is found barely alive and burned beyond recognition, she is immediately taken to the ER, where she lies for months in a medically induced coma. When she finally emerges from her coma, she is met with a bleak and lonely existence.
Badly disfigured and suffering from amnesia, her recovery is further shattered by a cancer diagnosis. Now with sudden desperation, there are two crucial things she is desperate to discover: who saved her life and who tried to kill her in the first place. And Ali Reynolds is the only person she trusts to beat the clock.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In bestseller Jance's middling fifth Ali Reynolds thriller (after Cruel Intent), the ex TV journalist takes over a media-relations job at the county police department in her hometown of Sedona, Ariz., after the previous flack is sent on administrative leave for misconduct. Soon after being fitted for the mandatory Kevlar vest, Ali goes to the site of a subdivision fire that has left an unidentified woman in critical condition. All signs point to arson, but the fire's amnesia-ridden survivor is the only one who knows the truth. With the help of a hospital nurse who's also a nun, Ali mostly undercover in a red wig in the hospital's burn unit waiting room slowly pieces together the victim's identity and her relationship to the fire. That Ali is essentially cast as a stenographer, surreptitiously transcribing the conversations of those visiting the victim's room, narrows the window for heart-racing action. A desert shoot-out tacked on toward the end adds some excitement.
