Firewatching by Russ Thomas

G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 368 pages, $26

Firebug, arsonist, pyromaniac. Firewatcher. I remember watching the movie “Backdraft,” a movie which showed the mercilessness and beauty of fire. In the slowed-down footage, the fire looked alive and terrifying. The arsonist or arsonists in “Firewatching” aren’t just enamored of fires but at least one of them, if there is a "them," is trying to cover up something big.

We mystery readers are used to being suspicious of practically everyone. Usually the kind author gives us at least one person to hang onto, to be the sympathetic rack on which to hang our hat. In “Firewatching,” we have Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler and a flibbertigibbet named Constable Amina Rabbani. Are they good hatracks? DS Tyler is good at appearing sullen, and DC Rabbani alternately blushes and takes offense. They are adequate hatracks  As an aside, most of the females in this book do not come off particularly well. They stutter and are easily flustered or they are no-nonsense.

A civilian with the police department, Sally-Anne, encourages Adam to get out more, find someone to love. She is larger than life and a lesbian. He is (see aforementioned “sullen”) quiet and gay. (Sally-Anne and Adam have an intriguingly odd communication problem.) She is thrilled when she talks him into a local pub night with other SYPLGBTSN (South Yorkshire Police Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transsexual Support Network) members and Adam finds someone engaging at the bar. And that, dear children, is how Adam met Oscar. Adam, however, has a difficult time with commitments, relationships, bonding because of his own terrible family issues. So, the next morning, it’s ta-ta to Oscar.

Adam has committed the ultimate police sin, revealed later in the book, and he has been consigned to the CID’s version of Siberia: the cold case files. He is dying to get back into actual, live CID work. His chance comes when the skeleton of notorious Castledene resident Gerald Cartwright, either a leading citizen or a gangster, is uncovered in the basement of his now run-down mansion. Adam forces his way into the cordoned off building, thereby compromising DC Rabbani who was not supposed to let anyone in. Her boss, Detective Inspector Jim Doggett, aka “the Yorkshire Terrier,” is livid, but strangely, soon both Adam and Rabbani are working on the Cartwright case.

While Adam Tyler is his own worst enemy, among the people on his side is DCI Jordan (the only woman who doesn’t appear to have aggravating issues) who has offered a modicum of protection to Adam after his “incident,” and managed to get Adam into cold cases. But even she may not be able to keep Adam out of trouble when it is revealed that Oscar is the absent son of Gerald Cartwright, who disappeared six years earlier.

The tangled web is woven when Adam doesn’t take advantage of an early opportunity to tell either Jordan or Doggett about his personal relationship, such as it is, with Oscar. So, darker, webbier, tanglier pages later, Adam is in a right pickle.

Main issue: Who killed Cartwright? Secondary issue: Who is setting fires all over the area? Could they be the same person, because long ago someone tried to burn down the Cartwright mansion.

What I liked about the book is it didn’t stray off-piste and become a convoluted tale of embezzlement, gang activity, international intrigue, stuffing corpses with smuggled dope, or UFOs. This was a story set in the neighborhood of The Old Vicarage, the mansion Cartwright remodeled. He, his wife and son, Oscar, lived there until Oscar’s mother ran off and years later his father disappeared. Oscar was cared for by two neighborly little old ladies until he left for boarding school and uni. They were his “aunts,” but now there is something squirrely about them. Edna has cancer and is dying, and Lily has dementia They are receiving blackmail letters. Lily has not told Edna about the letters. In addition, Lily has forgotten what they have done to merit being blackmailed. (Now that’s a sweet premise!)

What I had trouble with is the main characters of Adam Tyler and Amina Rabbani. Tyler was so very morose and Rabbani was so very flustered, it was hard to attach to them. Adam’s moroseness was more understandable and forgivable, but Rabbani’s ambition to be more than a constable is at odds with how terribly she handles herself. Why would anyone give her a chance? Adam extends a professional hand because he feels apologetic about getting her into trouble in the first place. She should run with that, but instead she’s petulant, sullen, nervous, excitable, rambling.

I’m certain it will be a series. There are all kinds of issues left dangling.