Product Description

Seattle police sergeant Lou Boldt is stunned when the local fire investigator presents him with frightening evidence in a series of fires that have occurred in the Seattle area. These white-hot fires burn so cleanly that even the ash disintegrates--leaving not a trace of its victims or any evidence of criminal activity. Only when Boldt is taunted by someone sending him pieces of melted green plastic--houses from a Monopoly board--does he realize that an arsonist is involving him in a deadly game. HBO has optioned.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68933 in Books
• Published on: 1998-08-03
• Released on: 1998-07-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 656 pages

Amazon.com Review
Ridley Pearson manages to make high-tech crime-fighting more human and fascinating than anyone else in the field--witness such bestsellers as Chain of Evidence. Once again, Sgt. Lou Boldt, inspired and seemingly tireless forensic investigator for the Seattle police, zigs from the lab to the field--this time to find out why single mothers are being burned to death by flash fires fueled by an unknown, amazingly volatile fuel. The chief villain might remind you of recent headlines, but Pearson's research and writing skills create fiction more interesting than fact.

From Publishers Weekly
A rag and a bone are literally all the Seattle PD has to work with after a violent fire consumes a home and its helpless female occupant, a divorced mother. When a second victim dies the same way, detective Lou Boldt (Chain of Evidence, etc.) and police psychologist Daphne Matthews (both Pearson regulars) begin the process of profiling a serial killer who uses rocket fuel to torch women because they resemble his mother. Elsewhere, a young boy named Ben, whose abusive stepfather has all but driven him into the street, has been befriended by a fraudulent "psychic" named Emily Richland, who hires Ben to scout her clients' vehicles while they're meeting with her. This task leads, in the novel's best scene, to Ben witnessing an exchange of cash for rocket fuel, a sighting that in turn eventually takes the police to their killer. Much of the plot teeters on the coincidental nature of all these connections, and on the unlikely bits of evidence used to corner the suspect (e.g., a ladder's impressions left on backyard grass). The intricate forensics that have driven so many of Pearson's novels are largely missing here, and secondary characters are sketched quickly and without depth. Even Boldt and Matthews have lost their shine, bickering a lot while insisting that they love one another, while Boldt's long-suffering wife, Liz, is discarded in cruel fashion. But no doubt the Boldt-Matthews team will be back, hopefully to solve cases less confusing and farfetched than this one. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Fans of award-winning thriller writer Pearson take note: Seattle Police Sergeant Lou Boldt is back, battling a scholar-arsonist who vaporizes his victims in hotter-than-hot house fires. Equally dangerous and about to blow is the smoldering romance between Boldt, who's drifting away from his wife, and police department psychologist Daphne Matthews. Pearson masterfully depicts the sparks between them. "A student of people, of behavior, of music, science, the arts," Boldt is an unusually appealing cop who treats himself with elegant high teas and worries about victims as if they were family. A riveting secondary plot involving a motherly psychic and her young accomplice parallels the main one until the two plots converge. Shop talk is authentic, but at times we feel we're hanging around the station too long. Moving from one punchy scene to the next, this fuse-burning suspense tale is wonderful reading for a wide audience. Recommended for all fiction collections; librarians should note that three earlier books in the Boldt-Matthews series are in development with HBO.?Molly Gorman, San Marino, Cal.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Another great one in the Lou Boldt series by Pearson
This fourth book in Pearson's Seattle based detective novel, BEYOND RECOGNITION, kept me hook from the very first chapter. For anyone who calls the Pacific Northwest home, Pearson's books are realistic. It was difficult to second guess each new turn and twist Pearson has planned for Lou Bodt and Daphne Matthews. His continued development of character personalities is great. The characters grow with each new book and there is just the right mix of new people too. The aronist angle was well developed and believable. The only complaint is the book was to long, much longer than his earlier books. I would have enjoyed BEYOND RECOGNITION if it had been about 75% of the pages. Still I would recommend the entire series to everyone living the Pacific Northwest.

Knocked my socks off --
This book really grabbed me and hauled me into the book before I was past page 5. I was so involved in the solving of this case that I had trouble monitoring my loads of laundry so that everything was wrinkled beyond recognition from the dryer. You will love this book!

Beyond Recognition is beyond the ordinary crime tale.
Ridley Pearson lights another burning success with this book about unexplained serial arsons in Seattle. More than just a plot driven mystery, Pearson develops further the interesting and complex web of characters he has introduced to readers in other Lou Boldt series.

The story begins a bit slowly until it suddenly ignites into a fully engaging read. Police psychologist Daphne Matthews seemed a bit brittle in this novel but other characters expand and glow. The story itself taught me things I did not know I wanted to know about firefighting and arsonists - the sign of an excellent author!

Ignore your mundane tasks and blaze through this visit to Pearson's world of crime fighting with very human characters fighting demons both within and outside the psyche.