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The Fireman
 
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The Fireman (Paperback)

by Stephen Leather (Author)
3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Coronet; New edition edition (5 Dec 1996)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0340672226
  • ISBN-13: 978-0340672228
  • Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 10.8 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 362,444 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Sunday Express

'Leather can dispense high-adrenaline plotting but never at the expense of remembering that his characters are humans rather than Action Man dolls' --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.


Review

'Leather can dispense high-adrenaline plotting but never at the expense of remembering that his characters are humans rather than Action Man dolls'

(Sunday Express )

'Reading Stephen Leather at leisure is always a pleasure.' (Ireland on Sunday )

‘Stephen Leather should be nestling in your bookshelves alongside Frederick Forsyth and Jack Higgins’

(Daily Mail )

'Compelling'

(Glasgow Herald )

'Leather is an intelligent thriller writer' (Daily Mail )

'This is an aggressively topical novel but a genuinely thrilling one, too.'

(Daily Telegraph on COLD KILL )

'A grand finale that'll have readers on edge'

(Literary Review on COLD KILL )

'As tough as British thrillers get . . . gripping' (Irish Independent on HARD LANDING )

'A riveting read' (Sunday Life, Belfast on SOFT TARGET )

'As high-tech and as world-class as the thriller genre gets' (Express on Sunday on THE BOMBMAKER )

'There's a new breed of British crime writer giving the genre a much-needed shake-up - and Stephen Leather is at the forefront . . . the sheer impetus of his storytelling is damned hard to resist.'

(Daily Express on COLD KILL )

'Excitement is guaranteed'

(Independent ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
See all Product Description

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The Fireman
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.1 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars For Sis, 28 Jan 2005
By Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
Of the many thrillers by Stephen Leather, I've read to date only THE CHINAMAN, THE STRETCH, PAY OFF, and this, THE FIREMAN, so my opinion of him as an author is still evolving. And I have six more of his books lined up on the shelf to read, with many more on my wish list.

Like the previous three, the theme of THE FIREMAN is revenge. As in PAY OFF, the reader never learns the protagonist's name. In this case, he's a correspondent for a London rag - let's call him "Bob" - who learns that his sister Sally, a freelance journalist, has taken a dive off a Hong Kong high-rise. Was it suicide or murder? Traveling to the Crown Colony - the book was first published in 1989, eight years before Red China took over the property - Bob is convinced she was murdered. Now, he's got to find out why and even the score.

Stephen Leather was himself a writer for Hong Kong's "South China Morning Post". His familiarity with the city shows and provides an ambience to the plot that's perhaps the book's best feature. Unfortunately, there's not the same cleverness that I admired in THE STRETCH, where the protagonist is the wife of a British underworld boss forced to take over the business when Hubby is put behind bars, or THE CHINAMAN, where the hero is a Vietnamese immigrant to the UK out to exact vengeance on the IRA for a London bomb that caught his daughter in the collateral damage. THE FIREMAN reads more like a mediocre detective story. Only on page 192, when the reader becomes privy to an unsuspected aspect of Bob's relationship with Sis, did I do a mental double-take and think "Say, what!?" But Leather never develops this surprise further, and his hero eventually marches to the volume's conclusion never seeming as truly driven as he should be under the circumstances, and the ending was curiously flat.

I gather that THE FIREMAN was one of the author's earlier works. While I might have given it four stars in a vacuum, in comparison with the other three, especially THE CHINAMAN and THE STRETCH, three is max.

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Hong Kong mystery keeps you guessing, 24 Aug 2001
By A Customer
One of Leather's early books (his second) and it's very different from his later work. Less of an action-packed thriller such as The Chinaman or The Bombmaker, more a mystery story set in Hong Kong with an unamed narrator trying to find out if his sister killed herself or was murdered. I read it in one sitting. A good read, but I prefer his later books.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not Brilliant, 28 Aug 2000
By Mr. M. D. Shackleton "shack247" (Oswaldtwistle, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I was a bit disappointed with this book, dont get me wrong it's a decent read but not what I expect from Mr Leather. To me the story was over before it started.Like Vets it's based mainly in Hong Kong which seemed to bore me.It's slightly a shadow of Chinaman (excellent book) where a family member tries to find out how and why their relative dies and to seek revenge.I'm still a massive Leather fan and this book didn't dampen that.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars not Leather's finest hour!!
I have read a few of Stephen Leather's books and have enjoyed them. When this early novel turned up in my local charity bookshop I grabbed it with both hands. Read more
Published 2 months ago by ratscat13

3.0 out of 5 stars Average early novel from Leather
This was Leather's second novel and naturally used his experience as a journalist in Hong Kong for a lot of the plot which features brother and sister journalists and... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Clive

1.0 out of 5 stars Yawn!
I read and loved The Bombmaker so I thought I'd try another Stephen Leather book. I don't know whether I'll try a third cause this book was one of the most boring books I've... Read more
Published on 30 April 2001 by Christine L

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally enjoyable read
Stephen Leather takes the reader right to the heart of the action. You are up close and personal with the charactres the whole way through the story. Read more
Published on 31 Oct 1998

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