Cold Fire (Koontz novel)
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| Cold Fire | |
 Cover of Cold Fire |
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| Author | Dean Koontz |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror novel |
| Publisher | Berkley Publishing |
| Publication date | 1991 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 432 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-425-13071-1 |
Cold Fire is a best-selling novel written by Dean Koontz, released in 1991.
[edit] Plot summary
A few months ago, Jim Ironheart, a former teacher in Laguna Beach, California, discovered he had a strange faculty. From time to time he suddenly feels the urge to go away, either to a different state or abroad, and when he arrives he manages to show up just in time to save one or several people from being killed, by violence or in an accident. In Portland, Oregon, disillusioned journalist Holly Thorne becomes a witness to Jim Ironheart saving a school child from being run over by a drunk driver. She is quickly attracted to him and his alluring blue eyes. Two weeks later she sees his photo in an article about a man who saved a young boy in a fatal accident in Boston. Thorne discovers that there have been several news stories about a man with blue eyes who showed up from nowhere and saved people in accidents or from being murdered. She decides to investigate who Jim Ironheart is.
Unnoticed she follows him aboard a United Airlines DC-10 to Chicago. Jim's mission is to save two people from dying as the plane crashes. He discovers Thorne and she convinces him to tell the pilot about the upcoming disaster. The plane still crashes but with the help from Ironheart the pilot can do the best of the situation. Instead of 151 passengers dying in the crash, the number of fatalities is reduced to 47.
After the crash, Thorne manages to gain Ironheart's confidence. She has had nightmares about an old mill and he tells her it is the old mill at his parents' farm outside New Svenborg in the Santa Ynez Valley. She spends the night at his house but in the middle of the night they are attacked by a being that comes down from the roof.
The next day, they drive to New Svenborg to visit the old mill. Ironheart is convinced that the old mill has all the answers to explain what has been happening to him.
[edit] See also
The DC-10 crash is based on the 1989 crash of United Airlines Flight 232. In that disaster, the tip of the right wing hit the runway, spilling fuel which ignited immediately and the fire and the smoke killed many of the passengers. In the novel, Jim Ironheart's instructions to the pilot to accelerate the left engine at touchdown means that the right wing misses the ground.
