These are reviews about the Firehouse Family Series as a whole.
An officer in the Highland Hills, Ohio Fire Department, an experienced freelance writer, and an expert in equine safety, Laurie Loveman has authored three novels of exceptional caliber. This Woodhill, Ohio trilogy demonstrates and documents Laurie Loveman as a master storyteller with a superb grasp of her craft. — James A. Cox Editor-in-Chief, The Midwest Book Review
Siren
From hose nozzles to novels
Firefighter writes books based on firehouse experiences
Reprinted with permission by Cleveland Clinic Health System - Eastern Region
Spring 2000
When it comes to reading, forget science fiction, mysteries or romances set in exotic locales. Patty Bryan prefers to read novels about a subject dearer to her heart--as well as to the heart of other firefighters. Luckily, there is a novelist right here in the Cleveland area whose plots revolve around firefighting.
"I bought all three of Laurie Loveman's books and I love them all,"
says Bryan, who is the EMS director at South Pointe Hospital. "They're
quick reads and page turners."
Lt. Loveman is a firefighter with the Highland Hills fire department, who
currently works primarily in an administrative capacity. When her first grandchild
was born, she says she stopped firefighting as much because she felt "grandmother
shouldn't be running through burning buildings."
Although Loveman no longer runs through fires, the
characters in her novels do. They are members of what has been dubbed the "Firehouse
Family," and they live in the fictional town of Woodhill, Ohio, during the
1930s. To ensure authenticity, the novelist bases her research on fire and medical
manuals, history books, and other resource materials that were printed before 1940.
"I purposely set my novels in the '30s because things are too technical
now," says Loveman. "Back then they had ambulances and other things
we use today, but the medical attention was much more simplified. In fact,
the rescuers were called 'First Aid Men.'"
Loveman's three novels, which include Memories,
The Quarry, and The Farm Fires, were all published by Xlibris Corporation, a small
press in Princeton, N.J. In Memories, the first of the trilogy, a former New York
City fire captain named Jake McCann moves in 1932 to the small Ohio town of Woodhill,
where he becomes the new fire chief. He falls in love with a married woman, and
the story involves revenge and a climactic, raging fire.
The Quarry is set two years later, and its main character is Aaron Chandler,
a mine expert who witnesses a horrendous accident. Chief McCann makes a return
in The Farm Fires, but his friend, Freddy Pratter, is now the one with the
love interest. A serial arsonist and barn fire brings him together with a
divorcee who has recently moved back to her parents' dairy farm.
In each of Loveman's novels, she includes much information
on horses and farming. She says she gained this knowledge by being around horses
and farms all her life. Until 1989, she lived on a horse farm in Solon, where she
bred Appaloosas. She is now a resident of Bainbridge, but still spends much of
her time as an equestrian.
Loveman also learned about farming at college, where
she majored in agriculture. She left in her third year of college, and later on,
received a bachelor of science degree in fire and engineering technology from the
University of Cincinnati. Although she has no EMS training, Loveman does have some
medical background. A number of years ago she was supervisor of histology and cytology
at the former Highland View Hospital in Warrensville Township, where she worked
closely with the chief pathologist.
Although Loveman does not have an extensive EMS
background, her daughter, Cindy Cohen does. Now a senior nursing student at Case
Western Reserve University, she worked as a firefighter/paramedic in Cincinnati.
Cohen's husband, Dale Cohen, is assistant chief at the Woodmere Fire Department.
"Dale used to be a captain at Highland Hills when I was a lieutenant,"
says Loveman. "He used to joke that not many men get to send their mother-in-law
into burning buildings."
Loveman was drawn to firefighting when a friend's
child died in a fire. The death led her to research fire response time and firefighting
tactics, and she planned to write a book on the subject. Although that book was
never written, the interviews and research she had conducted spurred such an interest
in the subject that she decided to make a career in firefighting.
She is an Ohio-certified fire safety inspector and
is a board member of the National Equine Safety Association, a national organization
that holds clinics to teach horse owners and facility managers how to maintain
fire-safe barn environments and what to do with their animals in case of natural
disasters.