The Room of White Fire

Starred review from May 29, 2017
Bestseller Parker (The Famous and the Dead and five other Charlie Hood novels) provides a glimpse into the shadowy, disturbing, and morally indefensible world of outsourced interrogation in this excellent series launch. PI Roland Ford, a former cop, has what seems like a simple case: find Clay Hickman, a patient who escaped from Arcadia, a private mental hospital in San Diego County. Like Ford, Hickman is a veteran, but his wartime experiences—working in secret prisons and torture—have scarred him deeply. Hickman may or may not be insane, but he has a real mission: to “bring white fire to Deimos.” What this means becomes horrifyingly clear as the narrative unfolds. Ford picks up Hickman’s tracks quickly and pursues him from San Diego to Ukiah, in Northern California’s wine country. He also runs up against doctor Briggs Spencer, Arcadia’s founder, who coauthored a “torture book” for the CIA. Like many Parker heroes, Ford is a decent human being with more than a hint of sadness about him. Author tour. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Agency.

July 1, 2017
A resourceful private investigator uncovers layers of deception in his search for an escaped mental patient.Noirish narrator Roland Ford, a former Marine, seems the perfect choice to find Iraq War veteran Clay Hickman, who's ended three years in Arcadia, an upscale asylum in the mountains of San Diego County, by going AWOL. Ford's still struggling with his own grief years after the death of his wife, Justine. Clay's gentility, described by friends like Sequoia Blain, whom Ford interviews in the nearby trailer park, is squarely at odds with his reported history of violence. Ford goes back to Clay's extensive military record for clues while keeping an eye on Sequoia. Instinct prompts him to trust her. So when Clay returns to her, Ford waits to see what happens instead of reporting this development to his employers. Meanwhile, he delves deeper into Clay's military records as well as his recent emails for insight into his post-military behavior. He finds so many inconsistencies in the government accounts that he begins to believe Clay's claims of military misconduct and a coverup. The interference of Clay's righteous parents complicates Ford's job even more. When Ford ultimately places his trust in Clay, he knows he's crossed a dangerous line. But his sense of justice prevents him from following any other path. An impressive series kickoff from the prolific Parker (Crazy Blood, 2016, etc.), packed with interesting supporting characters and written with clarity and economy.

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May 1, 2017
Roland Ford, the San Diego PI at the center of Parker's powerful novel, at first seems out of central casting. He's a widower with a dodgy work history and a taste for bourbon. The plot starts out smelling standard, too. Ford must find an escapee from a tony$25,000 a monthsanatorium. But soon it's clear that Parker is after bigger thematic game. Ford strolls the grounds with a patient who confides that those hovering hummingbirds are really surveillance drones. Refusing to dismiss the fellow as a nut, Ford climbs a tree to find out. Yup, drones. Then, when the patient says the missing man is out to bring white fire to Deimos, Ford doesn't laugh it off. So he's ready when it becomes clear that the cryptic phrase is the key to everything. The escapee has videoshideous videos, described in powerful languageof Iraqi prisoners being tortured to little effect by mercenaries who made a lot of money. There have been other novels portraying the horror of torture, but this doubles down by casting the torturers as gleeful sadists who find their vocation irresistible. Chilling on multiple levels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

October 2, 2017
Voice actor Damron’s soft, sensitive rendition of Parker’s suspense novel captures an important part of its protagonist Roland Ford’s psyche. He’s world-weary and suffering the loss of his beloved wife, but he happens to be an ex-pro boxer, ex-cop, and former Marine, and he’s now a private eye, so one would expect he might sound a little tougher around the edges. Damron’s delivery is a good fit for Ford’s quarry, Clay Hickman, an emotionally disturbed Air Force vet who has recently escaped from Arcadia, a private mental hospital in San Diego County, Calif. Hickman’s therapist, who has hired Ford, explains that Hickman may hurt himself or others, a possibility also mentioned by Arcadia’s owner. Ford soon discovers that Hickman’s tour was in Romania, probably at a horrific black torture site. The narrative mixes Ford’s progress with his visits with family and eccentric friends at the ranch he inherited from his wife, many of whom are given their own voices by Damron as well. Damron’s multifaceted performance helps bring the characters in Parker’s thriller to life. A Putnam hardcover.