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The Fire Baby | 
 enlarge | Author: Jim Kelly
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £7.98 (100%)
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 228597
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0141009349
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780141009346
ASIN: 0141009349
Publication Date: July 26, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Acceptable Condition - Same Day Dispatch - Ex-Library with usual markings - Polycover - tear of first page inside cover
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 An Out of Control Fire May 29, 2008
Sam (Reading, Berkshire)
`The Fire Baby' is a book that starts off a little confusing and never really manages to get over it. The book opens decades earlier when a plane crashes on a house killing everyone on board and in the house, except for a woman and child. Zip forward to the present and local reporter Dryden has been asked to investigate what really happened by a friend on her death bed. With a 20+ year old story to uncover, Dryden finds himself wrapped up in a mystery that will involve very modern murders, pornography and illegal immigrants.
Jim Kelly has produced three separate themes in `The Fire Baby' and tries to weave them into a coherent whole. For the most parts the three investigations that Dryden investigates do not impact one another except in limited, yet important, ways. This makes the book exciting, but also confusing as it is hard to fathom who is doing what to whom. I did enjoy the book as Kelly has created a very likeable duo in reporter Dryden and his grumpy driver. Unfortunately, the good writing and decent characters are slightly let down by the confused plot this time out. Having read the earlier book in the series I do know that Kelly is a good author so I look forward to his next book.
 A well-constructed story and an enjoyable read November 26, 2006
johnverp (Budapest)
A 9 out of 10 rating may have better reflected my views about this book and I would find it hard to be too critical. One reviewer has suggested that it was just too drab for the first 100 pages and therefore not worth progressing with; I, however, would feel very uncomfortable reaching conclusions about a book without finishing it. And, in this case, I think the effort was very much worth it. The plot is well-constructed, Dryden (the lead character who is an investigative journalist) is someone the reader can warm too and the story is well-written. I was occasionally confused by the chapters written in italics, but these did not detract from the strength of the story nor the quality of writing. Overall, this was a good and interesting mystery read which kept me turning the pages with enthusiasm.
 Downbeat June 10, 2006
Colin Ingram (LONDON United Kingdom)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
I am afraid I did not finish it despite reading over 100 pages. It was too depressing. The characters were all unhappy, but even more the countryside, whether man made or natural,was bleak and unattractive.
It was well written, and the plot seemed interesting; but the continuously downbeat note made me not wish to continue.
Yet another sign that a great series has begun June 1, 2004
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I read and enjoyed 'The Water Clock' last year, and was really looking forward to the sequel, 'The Fire Baby' - and what a treat! 'The Water Clock' introduced us to Dryden, the local journalist at the centre of these books, and this follow-up confirms that he has the potential to make a truly great series character. It isn't just Dryden, but the characters around him who make the books something special - the friendship between Dryden and Humph the taxi-driver is developed further, as is the story of Dryden's relationship with his wife, in a coma in a hospital bed. I did worry that the coma would become a very static part of Dryden's back-story, but Kelly uses all of his elements to great effect, not only as character traits and influences, but as part of a plot that moves forward at a great pace, twisting and turning before reaching a skillfull and dramatic finale. And of course the Fen landscape is as much a character as any of the people, reflecting and heightening the mood and darkness of the story. 'The Fire Baby' confirms that Kelly has created a series character with the potential to grow. I for one hope there will be many more outings for Dryden and the other characters in this wonderful series.
a great read May 26, 2004
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
What a great read! This book is brought springing to life by an absorbing array of characters described very deftly - and often very humorously – by Kelly.
The plot revolves around Philip Dryden, a slightly world-weary ex-Fleet Street journalist now earning a living writing for Ely’s ‘The Crow’. The two people he spends most time with are his wife – who happens to be in a coma and Humph, who’s almost in a coma too for the amount he manages to communicate. Humph is the hilariously taciturn cab driver permanently on call to ferry Dryden around the Fens – and he alone is reason enough to read the book.
There are multiple strands to the plot – including people smuggling, the peddling of pornography and the secrets of a woman who lost her infant many years before in the inferno caused by a US Air Force plane crashing on to her farm. Now on her death bed – and in the same room as Dryden’s wife – she decides that it’s time to finally come clean about what really happened on the night the plane plummeted from the sky. The result is that she sets off a chain of events with increasingly violent consequences.
Kelly has produced a first rate thriller here, but what I loved about the book most were the many poetic turns of phrase – used to great effect in evoking the atmosphere of the brooding and mysterious Fens landscape.
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