Hazardous Material by Kurt Kamm, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Bucky Dawson is a HazMat specialist with the Los Angeles County Fire Department who, following a injury, was prescribed a powerful pain killer. But the pain outlasted the prescription, so when his doctor refuses to extend it, he turns to online sources, convincing himself it was only temporary. And just when he thinks he may be getting to the point where he can quit, trajedy strikes in Hazardous Material, a Firefighter Mystery by Kurt Kamm.

One night his HazMat Task Force Unit 129 was sent to a trailer park, where there was suspected to be a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory operating. As his team prepared to go in, a young woman exits a trailer, striking a match to light a cigarette. The sudden explosion destroys the trailer, killing everyone inside including the young woman outside, who is later identified to be Bucky Dawson's younger sister Brandy. Vowing the beat both his own addiction and seeking to learn how his sister came to be involved with illicit drugs, Bucky enters a criminal world of the local motorcycle gangs that control the illegal drug's manufacture and distribution.

Hazardous Material is more of a character study than a mystery … and it's not so much a mystery as a suspense and sometime action thriller. Bucky Dawson has led a hard life: his mother was a dope addict, who wasn't around much; his father, a firefighter, died while Bucky was in his teens. He was left to bring up Brandy, who as soon as she could, quit school and left home. Bucky's adult life isn't much better: his wife has divorced him and he is a loner with no real friends. And yet Bucky is such a nice, caring, and all-around decent fellow that it almost hurts the reader to see him in so much pain, both physical and psychological. The storyline is a dark one, moves along at a brisk pace, is interesting and at times thought-provoking, and keeps the reader's attention right through the final chapter, just to see how it all turns out for Bucky.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Hazardous Material.

Acknowledgment: the author provided a copy of Hazardous Material for this review.

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Hazardous Material

A Firefighter Mystery by Kurt Kamm