I feel mixed on this one, but ultimately it irritated me too much to finish. On the good side, the author presented the legal and arson forensics clearly and well. Reuben obviously knows the subjects on which she builds her mystery, and I'll give her points for a knowledge of torts that appears textbook perfect. The details on classic cars and arson were truly intriguing. Like much hard-boiled detective fiction, this was written first person with an attitude, and the lawyer and narrator, Max Bramble, evinced a good sense of humor and turn of phrase. I quite liked Wylie Nolan, a retired Fire Marshall who assists him in the investigation and who evinces a deductive flair worthy of Sherlock Holmes.

The problem is more that the right-wing politics was way too much to the fore--and I say that as someone right of center. No author lacks a worldview, left or right, and often you can subtly (or not so subtly) detect it. Dean Koontz strikes me as right of center, Stephen King as on the left. It doesn't bother me in their books, though, but it does with Reuben. The plot deals with Bramble and Nolan investigating the conflagration of a classic car, a Duesenberg worth two million dollars, in which the wealthy and powerful media mogul Stanfield Standish is killed. His estate sues the company that restored the antique car for 23 million and Bramble is retained for the defense.

Standish is an obvious--and I mean obvious--stand-in for Ted Turner. And boy, Bramble sure makes it clear he detests him. We're led through the reasons why people had reasons to hate Standish. Such as a on air personality at "SNN" fired because he took a patriotic slant on a documentary rather than attacking America, offending Standish's "neo-internationalism." Or the ill-feeling when Standish buys the film archive of a major studio and begins to alter them by electronically inserting contemporary faces superimposed over those of classic actors. One of those modern actresses is described as one of those bizarre and iconoclastic left-wing performance artists.

In other words, this is right-wing pornography. And despite the fact I could describe myself as on the right side of the political divide, I found this too preachy and eye-rollingly heavy-handed for my tastes. ( )