Jason Keeting has finally settled back into relative normalcy as the chief of Spruce Bay Fire in North Idaho after a series of harrowing and tragic incidents. With the help of an out-of-district firefighter acting undercover, he was able to assist law enforcement in the arrest of almost the entire board of fire commissioners in his small rural fire department. But just as the proverbial dust has settled and he has begun helping his fiancee, Jennifer, with the planning of their wedding, he receives a call from his good friend, Marty Jackson, the fire chief at a district just across the border in Whitman, Washington. Marty has been seriously injured in a cannery fire, the cause of which is suspicious and he asks Jason to fill in for him, running the district until Marty can get back on his feet. Jason readily agrees; however, within a day of arriving as the substitute fire chief, he finds himself in a quandary when the fire crews find themselves in danger while responding to what should have been the extinction of a simple wheat stubble fire. After several more similar incidents, Jason arrives at the conclusion that someone is targeting Whitman Fire firefighters. Incensed, Jason enlists Shaun Gaines, a trusted volunteer from his own fire district, to assist him in an undercover investigative operation. He soon regrets, however, pulling Shaun into the line of fire.

--J. A. Guinn

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