Lake of Fire by Mark Stevens

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read the full disclosure here.

A giant wildfire is roaring through Colorado’s Flat Tops Wilderness. The massive blaze is wiping out Allison Coil’s precious hunting grounds, and the flames have set their sights on the beautiful ranch owned by her boyfriend’s family.

Allison and longtime friend Trudy are shocked to learn that a body has been found in the fire ravaged forest—a friend who was a reclusive environmentalist with an unorthodox idea for the battle against global warming. Along with reporter Duncan Bloom, Allison burrows into an underground group of anti-government extremists. As they strike close to home and hurt those closest to her, Allison vows hell might not be punishment enough for this cabal of sinister fanatics. (synopsis)

Lake of Fire: A mystery novel

The book opens on a giant wildfire in Colorado’s Flat Tops.  Allison Coil is in the wilderness when it starts and is almost suffocated by the fire.   She escapes and manages to get to her in-laws house.  When she tells them of the pending fire they start doing everything they can to save the farm.

The next day Allison and her husband Colin are on their way back to their house when Devo, a man who lives in the woods and has his own reality show, stops her.   He tells her there is a body in the woods but he can’t be the one to report it.   He also says that the fire was deliberately set.  Allison reports it and soon they find it’s the body of a famous environmentalist.

Duncan Bloom is a reporter.   When he hears about the fire and that a famous environmentalist is missing he races to the Flat Tops.  He manages to talk to a group of environmentalists about their leader and decides to stick around and get the whole story.

Soon the unlikely trio of Allison, Duncan, and Devo dig to find out who set the fire and why they killed they popular environmentalist.   What they uncover is a scary group of anti-government extremists.   What started out as three people looking for answers soon turns into them trying to protect the Flat Tops and everyone who lives there.

I found this book a little hard to get into at first because of all the characters.  However, I soon learned who the main players were and the book began to pick up speed.  I wanted to know who started the fire and why they were still in the woods trying to pick people off.   I wanted to know what Devo’s plan was to leave his own reality show.   I wanted to know what Allison might do next.

I found Allison to be an extremely strong willed female character who knows exactly what she wants and doesn’t take crap from anyone.  She is perfectly capable in the wildness and will do anything for her friends.

Devo was a mystery to me.  He has a successful reality show about going back to the days when things were simple and people lived off the land.  However, as time goes on he thinks of all the money he’s making from the show and how comfortable he could be elsewhere.   He wants to find the person that set the fire but he also has his own agenda.

The question is, can Allison and company stop the extremists before they totally destroy the Flat Tops and everyone in them?

I give this book 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *