[Boldt & Matthews 04] • Beyond Recognition

There’s a homicidal arsonist loose in Seattle. Single mothers are being killed in fires that burn hotter than experts have ever seen. Somehow, the children are spared. Why?

For Seattle Police Sergeant Lou Boldt and the department’s psychologist, Daphne Matthews, the High Temperature Accelerant fires challenge their every resource. The fuel used in these deadly fires is as much a mystery as the identity of the arsonist who sets them.

A Seattle fire marshal reveals to Boldt that ominous quotations have been sent to him before each of the fires. Is the fire marshal, whose past is suddenly in question, more involved than anyone wants to believe?

Based on two years of research that included interviews with firefighters, tours of secret government labs, and the help of an Apollo astronaut, Beyond Recognition combines Ridley Pearson’s signature use of high-tech forensics with breathless pacing and complex characters to bring to the page a most compelling, challenging, and satisfying novel.