Explosive Forces (K-9 Rescue Novel, #5)

by D D Ayres

[EBookObsessed]

A riveting and exciting story. This is my first D.D. Ayres novel, but I have plans to take a look at the rest of this series.

I won a pair of giveaway copies of Explosive Forces from the publisher and after reading the book info, decided that I wanted to read it myself first, and I am glad that I did. Don’t worry, I was very gentle with it.

Noah is an arson investigator who is being set up to take the fall for a serial arsonist who killed a homeless man in his last fire. Noah has no idea why he is being singled out and why the arsonist was ready to kill him in a fire, making it look like Noah was committing suicide. He must have been getting very close during one of his investigations but he isn’t sure which one. Thing is, the arsonist does a pretty good job setting up Noah’s fall so much so that even Noah’s boss believes in his guilt and is working hard to get Noah in a prison cell.

The only one Noah can get to believe him is the woman who managed to save his life. Somehow the former model dragged his much larger body out of a fire before it consumed them both. The physical attraction between them was immediate. Spending time with the material witness to his “crime” is a problem, but they did spend time together and shared their life stories and feelings with each other so that the romance grew naturally. It bordered on insta-love but while they confessed stronger feelings toward each other than they had for prior partners, I believe we were left with the understanding that their relationship would grow stronger off the pages.

There was definitely page-turning suspense here since you know that Noah wasn’t responsible but everyone was so determined to railroad him straight into a prison cell. Why? Even Noah had no idea who was so determined to set him up. While all the evidence was circumstantial, Noah’s explanations weren’t great defenses and can easily be turned against him. And when the arsonist manages to get his hands on Carly, her future becomes very bleak as she tries to save herself from a brilliant and twisted man.

The last few books I read didn’t grab me so this story’s gripping drama was a happy change to get me excited about reading again. It is part of a series, but it seemed more of a standalone. I didn’t feel like I was one step behind everyone else who had read all of the other books. I checked out the other novels in the series and they all sound pretty exciting.