Firestorm in Paradise, a new novel by John Crues, is set in the late 1960s in a U.S. Forest Service camp outside the small town of Paradise in the mountains of Montana. Eighteen-year-old Jack Duncan finds himself away from home for the first time and in for a summer full of adventure and surprise: fighting and surviving a fire the likes of the one that killed his uncle; a family of bears that sits on a makeshift bench to watch the firefighters at work; rattlesnakes that accost Jack and his friends when one of the men panics and runs to get out of the brush; the confusion and surprise of Jackís girlfriendís cousin and her attraction to him; two Indian brothersóThor and Blackcloudóone who is Jackís friend and the other who is out to teach Jack a lesson; and Alex, a local highschool girl with whom Jack falls in love for the first time. 

This is a coming-of-age story that illuminates a summer of hard work, first love, and broken dreams; the conflict between Indian, city, and small-town cultures; and the bonding of men who shed their differences to stand as one against a monster forest fire. There is a sweet romance, the tension of young men testing themselves and each other, and the great outdoors in generous supply. 

Though Firestorm in Paradise is a novel, Crues writes with an understanding of fire fighting and with a keen eye for the beauty of the land where he spent five summers, three with the forest service as a smoke jumper. Besides being a coming of age story, the book shows the transition which occurred between traditional methods of forest fire control and modern methods using new technology.

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About the Author: John Crues, M.D. is Medical Director for RadNet Management and President of PorNet Imaging Medical Group in Los Angeles, California. He has published over one hundred articles, twenty textbook chapters, and eight textbooks in the medical literature. Firestorm in Paradise, his first novel, is based on the summers he spent in the late 1960s and early 1970s clearing trails, fighting forest fires, and smoke-jumping in Montana for the United States Forest Service.