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DI Jon Spicer #4
Hell's Fire
The deliberate torching of a church creates outrages across Manchester, and when a charred corpse and satanic symbols are found in the smoking ruins, detective Jon Spicer and the city’s Major Incident Team are called in. Spicer quickly finds himself drawn into the depths of a horrifying religious underworld he didn’t know existed. Soon, fresh killings bring the realization that those responsible for the burnings are prepared to commit even more brutal crimes in their twisted homage to God. As emotions and paranoia flare throughout Manchester, Spicer fears for those closest to him as he struggles to halt the continuing atrocities.
Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
82 people are currently reading
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About the author
Chris Simms
65 books81 followersI was born and brought up in rural Sussex, three miles from the nearest shop. Childhood holidays – which lasted for weeks as my dad was a teacher – were spent in a secluded spot in the heart of Exmoor. Sitting round the campfire at night, the haunting cries of owls floating in from the blackness beyond the flames, he would read me the ghost stories of MR James. The short walk to the safety of my tent was always taken at a sprint.
Books that interested me growing up? Plenty of mysteries – especially the Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators series. I also loved Roahl Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected and read plenty of Pan Horror Stories, too.
Later, it was novels that gave insights into unusual minds: the twisted desires of Frederick in John Fowles’, The Collector; the tormented thoughts of Scobie in Graham Greene’s, Heart of the Matter; the violent urges of Francie in Patrick McCabe’s, Butcher Boy all had a major influence.
After school and university came a series of abysmal jobs punctuated by travelling. Quite a lot of travelling, actually. Then, just after my 30th birthday, the idea for my first novel came to me. I was broken down on the hard shoulder of a motorway in the early hours of the morning, waiting for a rescue vehicle to arrive. It’s about the driver of a van who roams the roads in the dead of night, looking for stranded motorists to murder…
Ideas for subsequent novels have occurred at all sorts of odd moments: glimpsing a derelict church from the window of a moving train; browsing a newspaper report about a walker who claimed he’d been attacked by a panther; half-reading a doctor’s surgery article on how some tinnitus sufferers don’t hear whistles or buzzes – they’re tormented by birdsong; listening to a radio program about a flotilla of yellow ducks that fell from a cargo ship and floated slowly across the Atlantic.
Books that interested me growing up? Plenty of mysteries – especially the Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators series. I also loved Roahl Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected and read plenty of Pan Horror Stories, too.
Later, it was novels that gave insights into unusual minds: the twisted desires of Frederick in John Fowles’, The Collector; the tormented thoughts of Scobie in Graham Greene’s, Heart of the Matter; the violent urges of Francie in Patrick McCabe’s, Butcher Boy all had a major influence.
After school and university came a series of abysmal jobs punctuated by travelling. Quite a lot of travelling, actually. Then, just after my 30th birthday, the idea for my first novel came to me. I was broken down on the hard shoulder of a motorway in the early hours of the morning, waiting for a rescue vehicle to arrive. It’s about the driver of a van who roams the roads in the dead of night, looking for stranded motorists to murder…
Ideas for subsequent novels have occurred at all sorts of odd moments: glimpsing a derelict church from the window of a moving train; browsing a newspaper report about a walker who claimed he’d been attacked by a panther; half-reading a doctor’s surgery article on how some tinnitus sufferers don’t hear whistles or buzzes – they’re tormented by birdsong; listening to a radio program about a flotilla of yellow ducks that fell from a cargo ship and floated slowly across the Atlantic.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 11, 2023
A roller coaster of a story!
DetectIve Inspector Jon Spicer, a copper who gets results, respected by his subordinates but despised by his superiors. A man troubled by his strict Catholic upbringing, lives with the knowledge that his brother is a drug addict and his sister is converting to Wicca. Just the person to investigate a series of church arson attacks, carried out by would be Satanists. Death metal bands, manic Christian fundamentalists, suspected paedophiles and the dregs of society, all gathered together in a dark and depressing murder mystery. Not a happy read if you are feeling depressed but, it was a quality whodunit tale. Just make sure you read something light hearted afterwards.
DetectIve Inspector Jon Spicer, a copper who gets results, respected by his subordinates but despised by his superiors. A man troubled by his strict Catholic upbringing, lives with the knowledge that his brother is a drug addict and his sister is converting to Wicca. Just the person to investigate a series of church arson attacks, carried out by would be Satanists. Death metal bands, manic Christian fundamentalists, suspected paedophiles and the dregs of society, all gathered together in a dark and depressing murder mystery. Not a happy read if you are feeling depressed but, it was a quality whodunit tale. Just make sure you read something light hearted afterwards.
March 31, 2010
A "novel of suspense"? Hardly. I would have given this 3-stars except the author went and wrote the most stupid coincidence in the end.
The third in a series, this book does not need the first two read to know this is not a good series. The characters are realistic but not that compelling and the plot is typical and not gripping. Churches are being burned, there's lots of suspects, some red herrings, others "surprising". I don't know if I'm just good at predicting or Simms wrote a little too obviously, but if readers are actually surprised by who the criminals are, they need to read more.
The plot points are cliche, made worse by the great revelation at the end. It's not that the reader can see it coming (most will, though) but it's that it happened. I wanted to shake the author and say, "Seriously? You made that connection? You don't think that was the most obvious coincidence to ever be written?"
The third in a series, this book does not need the first two read to know this is not a good series. The characters are realistic but not that compelling and the plot is typical and not gripping. Churches are being burned, there's lots of suspects, some red herrings, others "surprising". I don't know if I'm just good at predicting or Simms wrote a little too obviously, but if readers are actually surprised by who the criminals are, they need to read more.
The plot points are cliche, made worse by the great revelation at the end. It's not that the reader can see it coming (most will, though) but it's that it happened. I wanted to shake the author and say, "Seriously? You made that connection? You don't think that was the most obvious coincidence to ever be written?"
December 28, 2011
Three local churches have been torched in as many weeks. Evidence of satanic rituals has been discovered in the smoking remains of each one. The Christian community are outraged and media interest reaches national levels. When the fourth church is burnt down the Greater Manchester Police pass the case to DI Jon Spicer and his colleagues in the Major Incident Team. The priest of this particular church tells DI Spicer about several other recent incidents, possibly involving homeless people and youths. When the smoke has cleared, a charred corpse and satanic symbols are found in the ruins of the church, and the series of arson attacks take on an even more sinister angle – suspected human sacrifice.
At the same time, Spicer's younger sister Ellie announces that she has started to follow the Pagan way of the Wicca, despite their Catholic mother's assertion that Wiccans are actually witches, and Wicca was a religion that would lead followers straight to Hell. Ellie, it seems, has been introduced to Wicca by a friend who works at a New Age shop and is determined to join her new friend's coven.
Spicer thinks his sister's decision is some form of retaliation against their mother for making Ellie and her other brother go to Sunday school as kids (Spicer himself was excused Sunday school thanks to rugby practice). Of the three siblings, it is only Spicer – the one who didn't go to Sunday school – who has turned out relatively normal. Their brother has disappeared into the world of the homeless.
Meanwhile, Spicer's wife is trying to persuade him that they should send their daughter Holly to the happy clappy Church of England nursery because of its links to the better primary and secondary schools in the area. In case you hadn't guessed, this a book that has a lot to say about religion, and about Christianity in particular.
Pretty soon, Spicer links the church attacks to a local Death Metal band, Satan's Inferno and the sinister bandleader who has the name of a hell hound and an inverted cross tattooed on his forehead. His investigations are helped and hindered by a representative of the God Squad, a man with a too-severe side parting and an anorak, who believes his son has been sacrificed to the Devil by the Satanists. There's also the New Age shop his sister frequents, with its links to a newly-opened college called the Psychic Academy and its sinister Academy Head, Tristan Arkell. And a sprinkling of other priests, bishops and New Age Wiccans.
I'm afraid I found the author's treatment of his religious theme unsubtle and heavy-handed. But I persevered, because I had really enjoyed Chris Simms' first novel in the DI Spicer series and the next two books in the series were equally well received by Bookbag reviewers. Unfortunately, in this reviewer's opinion, Hell's Fire just isn't in the same league.
The coincidence of Spicer's sister suddenly becoming a Wiccan, at precisely the same time as a group of Satanists appear to be on the loose, placed far too much strain on my credulity. Worse, the terribly contrived intra-family didactic dialogue, exploring issues around religious belief and explaining the differences between white witchery and black magic (and Christianity) turned me off completely. At times I felt I was reading little more than the author's research notes. At the end of the first DI Spicer novel, Simms included a note referring to the swathes of references cut from that novel by his editor. A similar approach to this novel would have benefited it immensely.
If you don't mind a slow build up, and don't mind being given lots of background information that has little direct impact on the story, then you may not share my difficulties. Certainly, as the novel moves towards its climax, Simms does begin to ratchet up the tension very effectively. The true villain is revealed, the pace builds, and there is a breath-taking finale that was almost worth the earlier struggle to get to.
One of the things I really liked about Simms' earlier work was the way he brought his male characters to life. For me, none of the characters in this book stepped off the page. In fact, few if any of them came across as anything more than cartoonish stereotypes. This may be because the reader sees them, mostly, through Spicer's cynical eyes. It may be because Simms was trying too hard to write a book about religion and the effects of religion, rather than a crime 'story' with religion as its theme. It may simply be that my own personal prejudices got in the way. Whatever the reason, I'm afraid I struggled with this book.
At the same time, Spicer's younger sister Ellie announces that she has started to follow the Pagan way of the Wicca, despite their Catholic mother's assertion that Wiccans are actually witches, and Wicca was a religion that would lead followers straight to Hell. Ellie, it seems, has been introduced to Wicca by a friend who works at a New Age shop and is determined to join her new friend's coven.
Spicer thinks his sister's decision is some form of retaliation against their mother for making Ellie and her other brother go to Sunday school as kids (Spicer himself was excused Sunday school thanks to rugby practice). Of the three siblings, it is only Spicer – the one who didn't go to Sunday school – who has turned out relatively normal. Their brother has disappeared into the world of the homeless.
Meanwhile, Spicer's wife is trying to persuade him that they should send their daughter Holly to the happy clappy Church of England nursery because of its links to the better primary and secondary schools in the area. In case you hadn't guessed, this a book that has a lot to say about religion, and about Christianity in particular.
Pretty soon, Spicer links the church attacks to a local Death Metal band, Satan's Inferno and the sinister bandleader who has the name of a hell hound and an inverted cross tattooed on his forehead. His investigations are helped and hindered by a representative of the God Squad, a man with a too-severe side parting and an anorak, who believes his son has been sacrificed to the Devil by the Satanists. There's also the New Age shop his sister frequents, with its links to a newly-opened college called the Psychic Academy and its sinister Academy Head, Tristan Arkell. And a sprinkling of other priests, bishops and New Age Wiccans.
I'm afraid I found the author's treatment of his religious theme unsubtle and heavy-handed. But I persevered, because I had really enjoyed Chris Simms' first novel in the DI Spicer series and the next two books in the series were equally well received by Bookbag reviewers. Unfortunately, in this reviewer's opinion, Hell's Fire just isn't in the same league.
The coincidence of Spicer's sister suddenly becoming a Wiccan, at precisely the same time as a group of Satanists appear to be on the loose, placed far too much strain on my credulity. Worse, the terribly contrived intra-family didactic dialogue, exploring issues around religious belief and explaining the differences between white witchery and black magic (and Christianity) turned me off completely. At times I felt I was reading little more than the author's research notes. At the end of the first DI Spicer novel, Simms included a note referring to the swathes of references cut from that novel by his editor. A similar approach to this novel would have benefited it immensely.
If you don't mind a slow build up, and don't mind being given lots of background information that has little direct impact on the story, then you may not share my difficulties. Certainly, as the novel moves towards its climax, Simms does begin to ratchet up the tension very effectively. The true villain is revealed, the pace builds, and there is a breath-taking finale that was almost worth the earlier struggle to get to.
One of the things I really liked about Simms' earlier work was the way he brought his male characters to life. For me, none of the characters in this book stepped off the page. In fact, few if any of them came across as anything more than cartoonish stereotypes. This may be because the reader sees them, mostly, through Spicer's cynical eyes. It may be because Simms was trying too hard to write a book about religion and the effects of religion, rather than a crime 'story' with religion as its theme. It may simply be that my own personal prejudices got in the way. Whatever the reason, I'm afraid I struggled with this book.
September 8, 2008
HELL'S FIRE is the fourth book in this Manchester based series featuring DI Jon Spicer, although this is the first book in the group that I've read. An error of omission on my part that I'm going to have to do something about!
As you'd expect with a story that concentrates on the torching of churches, there are a lot of religious elements to this book. Although organised religion and the satanic ritualism as part of the church destruction is only part of a complex intertwining of religious elements. Satanic ritualism at the scenes connects to a Satanic styled rock band. The rock band connects to a new age college. The college connects to the victims - both of the fire and of the murders that keep happening. And for Jon, in a more personally confrontational manner, the new age college leads to his sister's newfound belief in Pagan religion, and conflict with their own, ultra-conservative and devout mother.
All of these connections, and the way that the investigation circles around the churches, the way that the churches - the buildings and the institutions - affect daily life in Manchester, and in Jon's own family - create a sinister, subtle feeling of menace that infects the entire story.
There is a lot of the personal in HELL'S FIRE. Simms has pulled his character's lives firmly into the investigation, and whilst that might prove a little distracting for some readers, it could also provide a real connection for others. To be honest I couldn't decide what I thought about it - I found Jon's personal life a bit overwrought and overblown at points, but that could have been because the plot itself was proving quite involving and very intriguing and I was getting impatient with the family stuff sometimes "getting in the way". Having said that, it's a temporary distraction and the intricacies of the HELL'S FIRE plot held up all the way through the book to an intriguing conclusion.
Before starting HELL'S FIRE I was aware that UK Bookseller Waterstone's selected Chris Simms as one of their '25 Authors for the Future' as part of their 25th anniversary celebrations. After reading the book you can see why. This isn't the most flattering portrayal of life in Manchester, but it is certainly compelling.
As you'd expect with a story that concentrates on the torching of churches, there are a lot of religious elements to this book. Although organised religion and the satanic ritualism as part of the church destruction is only part of a complex intertwining of religious elements. Satanic ritualism at the scenes connects to a Satanic styled rock band. The rock band connects to a new age college. The college connects to the victims - both of the fire and of the murders that keep happening. And for Jon, in a more personally confrontational manner, the new age college leads to his sister's newfound belief in Pagan religion, and conflict with their own, ultra-conservative and devout mother.
All of these connections, and the way that the investigation circles around the churches, the way that the churches - the buildings and the institutions - affect daily life in Manchester, and in Jon's own family - create a sinister, subtle feeling of menace that infects the entire story.
There is a lot of the personal in HELL'S FIRE. Simms has pulled his character's lives firmly into the investigation, and whilst that might prove a little distracting for some readers, it could also provide a real connection for others. To be honest I couldn't decide what I thought about it - I found Jon's personal life a bit overwrought and overblown at points, but that could have been because the plot itself was proving quite involving and very intriguing and I was getting impatient with the family stuff sometimes "getting in the way". Having said that, it's a temporary distraction and the intricacies of the HELL'S FIRE plot held up all the way through the book to an intriguing conclusion.
Before starting HELL'S FIRE I was aware that UK Bookseller Waterstone's selected Chris Simms as one of their '25 Authors for the Future' as part of their 25th anniversary celebrations. After reading the book you can see why. This isn't the most flattering portrayal of life in Manchester, but it is certainly compelling.
August 8, 2009
I am sad that this is the first of the series published in the US. The protagonist carries quite a bit of baggage that gets a bit glossed over a bit as it was probably covered in previous books. The church burnings and satanic clues keep you hooked through most of the book, though I must confess I solved this fairly early on (or at least my suspicions proved true) and that is the difference between a three and a four. I plan on finding the previous books in the series to see if they are true to Hell's Fire.
December 6, 2020
DI Spicer is not perfect. He is somewhat of a mans man who has trust issues when it comes to his gay partner. The few persons he shows any sensitivity toward are his wife, daughter and sister. And he is a bit stubborn and bullheaded in doing his job but manages to get the culprit. It is surprising that he does not get into even more trouble with his superiors, but once he feels a sense of being right in his pursuits he totally forgets the wrath of his superiors. All that said the author makes him likeable. The police procedural portion of the stories remind of "Prime Suspect" an all time favorite series.
March 9, 2020
Good solid read
Another good solid read in the DI Spicer series. For Jon the burning of churches and subsequent murders affect members of his own family & revenge eats away at him as old secrets are revealed. Very enjoyable read.
Another good solid read in the DI Spicer series. For Jon the burning of churches and subsequent murders affect members of his own family & revenge eats away at him as old secrets are revealed. Very enjoyable read.
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May 14, 2021Not my favorite subject but we'll written
Satanic worship is front and center. The mystery remains hidden so you can enjoy the hunt. I enjoyed the twists and turns.
Satanic worship is front and center. The mystery remains hidden so you can enjoy the hunt. I enjoyed the twists and turns.
April 25, 2022
Excellent story highly recommended
February 9, 2017
This is the fourth book in the DI Spicer series and you really don't need to have read the previous books to enjoy this one.
Are Satanists running amok in Manchester? With the arson of 4 churches and a new age school luring in the theologically curious. DI Spicer is skeptical about all of them. In his family his devotely Catholic mother is furious that his little sister (she's an adult) is dabbling in Wicca. But Ellie has lots of good reasons to reject Catholicism.
To be honest I found both sides of extremism a bit absurd and the idea that adults couldn't talk to their parents about bad things was bizarre.
The book also reveals one of the baddie's identity quite early in the story, which makes the police look like idiots while they chase their tails trying to pin it on a death metal band.
The main character spends a lot of time being shocked by things that happen around him, and reflecting on his youth.
Are Satanists running amok in Manchester? With the arson of 4 churches and a new age school luring in the theologically curious. DI Spicer is skeptical about all of them. In his family his devotely Catholic mother is furious that his little sister (she's an adult) is dabbling in Wicca. But Ellie has lots of good reasons to reject Catholicism.
To be honest I found both sides of extremism a bit absurd and the idea that adults couldn't talk to their parents about bad things was bizarre.
The book also reveals one of the baddie's identity quite early in the story, which makes the police look like idiots while they chase their tails trying to pin it on a death metal band.
The main character spends a lot of time being shocked by things that happen around him, and reflecting on his youth.
September 10, 2015
This is not a bad book good stories and I like the characters but enjoyment is totally spoiled by the spelling mistakes, grammar errors and formatting problems. I read book 3 before this one and found the same lack of proof reading in that one so it is obviously not improving as the series progresses. I did wonder if it was a translation problem but it is set in Manchester so not very likely. It is unlikely I will be reading any more by this author.
May 14, 2009
Simms keeps you guessing in this page turner crime novel.
May 15, 2013
Okay, so not the most surprising 'whodunnit', and some of the facts on religion seem a little shoe-horned in, but I enjoyed the ride!
June 3, 2013
Spicer is an engaging protagonist and enjoy this series
February 23, 2014
This was my first book of Christopher Simms, didn't realize it was part of a series.
January 31, 2015
Bit meh, this one.
November 28, 2015
Just Okay
This is my least favorite of the D I Spicer books. I'm hoping the next one is better. Just couldn't seem to get into this one.
This is my least favorite of the D I Spicer books. I'm hoping the next one is better. Just couldn't seem to get into this one.
August 19, 2016
I enjoyed this book. I've read others in the series too. Not particularly fast paced and maybe a little predictable who the murderer was but a good read.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews