Author: Esme Carpenter
The Man on Fire is not the type of book I normally read because it is a detective book, and whilst I enjoy detective TV series, I never actually read detective books. Well, it seemed the Man on Fire was a detective book because it started with a story of two detectives, Brittany Spencer and Francis DeWitt, but the book very soon turned into a sci-fi gem. After reading this book, I think I should read more detective books. Or perhaps I should just read Esme Carpenter’s books because this book was amazing. I love sci-fi, and I enjoy detective stuff so this book has it all. I can see a TV series made on the back of this book and writers would not have too much trouble creating 10 episodes because the book has so much detail that it could be a full-season series. This tells a lot about the writing style of the author who provides so much detail on the investigation, evidence collection as well as the lives and thoughts of two detectives that one has to wonder whether she was a detective herself. I googled her and read her info, and no, she is an English and Creative Writing graduate who has a fantastic imagination and an attention to detail.
As already mentioned, the story is centred on two detectives, Spencer and DeWitt (mind you, I often read books and have to go back to check character names before writing a blog because I instantly forget them; not this time). Spencer is a homicide detective whilst DeWitt works in a SCU dealing with special crimes. As it turns out, these special crimes are linked to the Zed population, which is a tiny proportion of the population with special abilities such as DeWitt himself who is a man of fire and can light up himself or anything else. There are others with different abilities such as his brother Evan (also known as Never) who can teleport himself and vanish in thin air so long as it is a place he has previously seen so he can calculate distance, where the walls are etc. Never cannot read but he is a mathematical genius who can quickly calculate distance from wall to wall for places he sees so he teleports himself, an ability which eventually sets him free from the Ward run by the federal agency that contains Zed population deemed as dangerous, and which grossly mistreats them and acts as if everyone was the same, thus depriving this population of their humanity. Others within the Zed population have skills which are truly dangerous and are held in bunkers, e.g., the so-called Omegas who have mind-control and similar skills that could seriously harm people. The book is an absolute gem to read and something so different from what we normally read in sci-fi literature.
The book starts with a man from the Zed population being found burnt and hanged on the staircase of a building, which instigates an unusual collaboration between the homicide (Spencer) and SCU (DeWitt) departments. The pair then investigates this murder, as well as other murders that happen during the book whilst, all the way, fighting the federal agents who are disrupting the investigation due to labelling all Z murders as suicide. The story unravels slowly, and it is not always easy to guess what will happen next – most of the time, it is not possible at all – but the book is written in a way that does not feel like a burden to read, and the reader is truly engaged with the story. If I saw this book as a TV series, I would have binged it in one afternoon and would not let it go, just as I did not let this book go.
Apart from a very skilful story of detective investigation, and the sci-fi element describing various special abilities of this peculiar population, the book also offers a critique of humanity and how we often treat those who are different from us in a discriminatory and stereotypical way. I truly enjoyed this part too, particularly as it is written through the thoughts of B. Spencer who has never been hostile to the population with special abilities but did not think much about them either. She contemplates that one learns not to deal with that issue and through her thoughts, we also understand that the general population would wreak havoc had they known what special abilities these people have in detail, which kind of justifies the containment of very dangerous members of the special ability population but it does not justify those as peaceful as DeWitt and his brother, Never nor does it justify attempts to open a new research facility and contain all members of the Zed population, inhumane treatment, dismissing everything as a suicide when something happens, etc.
The Man on Fire is the first book in the series, and I look forward to its continuation. The book is available on Kindle and free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. Check it out!
Thank you for reading!