When The Smoke Clears

WHEN THE SMOKE CLEARS

The truth will burn through any cover-up. Even if it takes three years to ignite.

Former hotshot superintendent Caleb “Smoke” Mercer has spent three years haunted by the wildfire that killed half his crew on Blackridge Mountain. Medically retired, discredited, and divorced, he’s been fighting a one-man battle to prove what he’s always known: the fatal burnover wasn’t an accident, but murder.

When a mysterious gas canister is discovered in the restricted burn zone where his team died, Caleb is suddenly called back to the mountain as a “technical advisor.” It’s his chance to finally uncover the truth—if he can survive long enough to find it.

Dr. Elena Reyes, the crew’s former medic, has her own secrets about what happened that day. As she and Caleb cautiously join forces, they discover a conspiracy reaching from illegal logging operations to the highest levels of government, with powerful people willing to kill to keep it buried.

When a new fire erupts on Blackridge, Caleb and Elena find themselves trapped between the flames closing in and the killers hunting them. With a team fractured by suspicion and betrayal, they must determine who they can trust before time runs out. For some fires were never meant to die—and some secrets will burn through any attempt to smother them.

A pulse-pounding thriller about loyalty, corruption, and the price of truth, “When the Smoke Clears” combines authentic firefighting expertise with a searing conspiracy that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the final page.