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The fire that was to change so many lives was so utterly started with a single shaft of lightning. It struck a mountain ridge on a still and moonless night and nestled like a pupa of death in the desiccated heart of an ancient pine. There were witnesses no doubt to this sudden splintering of air and wood, but none that was human. The woman, camped nearby with her group of troubled teenagers, slept on and heard nothing.

She has brought them here by court order on a youth program to help them find themselves. But one among them will be lost forever. For soon the cocoon of fire will hatch to engulf the entire mountain and exact its deadly toll. And into this inferno will come...

THE SMOKE JUMPER

His name is Connor Ford and he falls like an angel of mercy from the sky, braving the flames to save the woman he loves but knows he cannot have. For Julia Bishop is the partner of his closest friend, Ed Tully, an ambitious young musician. Julia loves them both but the tragedy on Snake Mountain forces her to choose between them and burns a brand on all their hearts.

His blond, blue-eyed looks an laconic cowboy charm, Connor is the only child of a Montana rancher and a rodeo queen. Until that fateful day, he has been happy to spend his winters nurturing a career as a photographer and his summer vacations with Ed, "smoke jumping"--being dropped by parachute to fight remote forest fires.

In the wake of the fire, he embarks on a journey to the dark heart of human suffering, traveling the world's worst wars and disasters to take photographs that find him fame but never happiness. Reckless of a life he no longer wants, again and again he dares death to take him, until another fateful day on another continent, he must walk through fire once more...

I have wanted to read this book for a long time now. Nicholas Evans has written two other books besides The Smoke Jumper, The Horse Whisperer and The Loop. I read The Loop some time ago and was very impressed by not only the story, but also Evans' writing. This led me to seek out his entire catalog, thus guiding me to The Smoke Jumper.

On the surface the only difference between The Loop and The Smoke Jumper is that one has a good story and the other does not. The Smoke Jumper has the same beautiful writing Nicholas Evans poured into The Loop though I feel as though the plot was lacking.

"The important things in life always happened by accident. At fifteen she didn't know much, in fact, with each passing year she was a lot less clear about most things. But this much she did know. you could worry yourself sick trying to be a better person, spend a thousand sleepless nights figuring out how to live clean and decent and honest, you could make a plan and bolt it in place, kneel by your bed every night and swear to God you'd stick to it, hell, you could go to church and promise properly. You could cross your heart seven times with your eyes tight shut, cut your thumb and squeeze it and pen solemn vows on a rock with your own blood then throw it in the river at the stroke of midnight. And then, out of the black beyond, like a hawk on a rat, some nameless catastrophe would swoop into your life and turn everything upside down and inside out forever."

That is the first paragraph from The Smoke Jumper. To put it simply, Evans writes the way I want to read. The book was not bad, I feel as though my expectations may have been too high. The bar was set high in The Loop.

Buy The Smoke Jumper $7.99
Buy The Loop $7.99
Buy The Horse Whisperer $7.99

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