Sifting Ashes:

With her K-9 Dante, Kristin Brann is investigating a series of suspicious fires. It’s not an easy job, the clues tend to burn up with everything else, and interviews only prove no one knows anything, has seen anything, or heard anything.

Thinking it will help the public come forward with information, the Mayor offers a reward, but that only overloads Kristin with suspects, just as the commissioner imposes a forty-eight hour deadline, make an arrest, or else.

Once on the trail, Kristin matches wits with the elusive arsonist, but soon realizes she’s become both hunter and prey. As the public, media, and politicians scream for results, Kristin’s under fire to stop the blazes before another property, or worse, another life, goes up in smoke.

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Reviews:

Sifting Ashes is much better than your typical crime mystery novel. The protagonist, Kristin Brann, is accompanied by Dante, a dog trained to sniff out accelerants in the ruins left after the fire is out. As Brann is pulled deeper and deeper into finding a serial arsonist, we learn about her personal issues and relationship failures. She is real, maybe like someone you know—maybe her anxiety hits even closer to home. This is what Stout does extremely well—he fabricates characters, and then through masterly use of his craft, we get to know these characters, much as you get to know any friend. It’s not a core dump, not all at once. Rather, a gradual introduction, and then you suddenly realize this character is not abstract, but a real person.

Brann is very good at her job. And nothing gets past Dante’s nose. But is that enough? I found myself completely immersed in the story—walking through the charred remains of a house, worried that Dante would get hurt on torn metal or broken ceramics, knowing that sometimes evidence is not enough. Luck, instinct, perseverance, all factor in when it comes to solving the puzzle. We know the arsonist is crafty—is he too skilled at his trade? Sifting Ashes will have you on the edge of your chair, turning page after page. Stout delivers again in what may be his best novel yet!

Dave Edlund, Author of Crossing Savage and Relentless Savage