Line #9 Literature/WhiteFire


1	[[quoteright:312:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/white_fire.jpg]]
2
3	''White Fire'' is a novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child first published in 2013. It is the thirteenth novel in their informal Literature/AgentPendergast series.
4
5	Nearly a year after the events of ''Literature/TwoGraves'', Corrie Swanson discovers a tantalizing subject for her college thesis. In the ski resort of Roaring Fork, Colorado, a historic cemetery is being relocated for land development. Among the remains are the skeletons of eleven miners, killed by a bear almost 150 years ago. Corrie goes to the resort to investigate, and finds that there's more to the miners' story than meets the eye. However, her attempt to investigate further lands her jail.
6
7	Enter Agent Pendergast, returning from his vacation. He arrives to spring Corrie out of jail...right when an arsonist burns down a mansion with the family still inside.
8
9	Putting himself on the case, Pendergast finds that the mysteries of the arsonist, the miners, and the resort itself may be illuminated by a curious clue: A lost story of the famous fictional detective, Franchise/SherlockHolmes...
10
11	No relation to the [[Film/WhiteFire film of the same name]].
12
13	----
14	!!This novel provides examples of:
15	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Betty Brown Kermode]] turns out be the arsonist's final victim. In spite of her earlier misgivings, Corrie feels that what happened was still too horrific a fate. Pendergast says nothing, but gives a look that suggests he feels otherwise.
16	* BasedOnAGreatBigLie[=/=]VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The prologue, which is about a meeting between Creator/ArthurConanDoyle and Creator/OscarWilde, is subtitled "A True Story". The meeting itself [[https://sites.google.com/site/martinhickescom//home/doyle-and-wilde actually happened]], and it's the reason we have Doyle's ''Literature/TheSignOfTheFour'' and Wilde's ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray''. The part where Wilde tells a horror story to Doyle - a horror story that [[VomitDiscretionShot sends Doyle to the restroom]] - is a fabrication by the authors.
17	** In-universe, [[spoiler: "The Adventure of Aspern Hall" is based on what ''really'' killed the miners in Roaring Fork.]]
18	* BigBadEnsemble: On the one hand we have the arsonist [[spoiler: Ted Roman]]. On the other hand, we have [[spoiler: Betty Brown Kermode and the Stafford family]], who are trying to keep the secrets of the ski resort. They don't like each other very much.
19	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Captain Stacy Bowdree saves Corrie from the sniper at the very end.]]
20	* BreatherEpisode: The story comes after [[Literature/FeverDream The]] [[Literature/ColdVengeance Helen]] [[Literature/TwoGraves Trilogy]], where Pendergast was pushed to his emotional limits. In contrast, the events of this novel are much less personal to Pendergast [[spoiler: at least until Corrie is apparently killed, but that turns out to be a DisneyDeath anyway.]]
21	* BuriedAlive: [[spoiler: Ted Roman dies in an avalanche.]]
22	* ChaseScene: Much of the climax is one between [[spoiler: Corrie and an assassin.]]
23	* ChristmasEpisode: The end of the novel takes place a little before Christmas, with the climax taking place on Christmas Eve.
24	* ContinuityNod: A chapter shows that Pendergast is still keeping an eye out for the escaped villain of ''Literature/TwoGraves''.
25	* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler: Ted Roman, the arsonist, is BuriedAlive in an avalanche. He sets things ablaze, but meets his end in ice.]]
26	* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler: Corrie is apparently burnt alive by Ted Roman, and her remains are apparently found by Pendergast. She then turns up alive; the remains Pendergast found were actually those of Betty Brown Kermode.]]
27	* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler: One of Corrie's fingers is shot off by Kermode's hitman.]]
28	* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In-Universe, Pendergast surmises that Conan-Doyle sneaked in aspects of the horrifying story about the miners into "The Hound of the Baskerville". But Conan-Doyle did not feel sufficiently cleansed after writing it, and as a result ended up writing the more explicit "Adventure of Aspern Hall".
29	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Creator/ArthurConanDoyle and Creator/OscarWilde appear in the Prologue and Pendergast's PensieveFlashback. As noted above, their meeting at the Langham Hotel is something that actually happened.
30	* HopeSpot: Corrie is [[spoiler: chased through the town mines by Kermode's assassin,]] but things start looking up when she runs into Ted. [[spoiler: Then he reveals himself as the arsonist.]]
31	* IdiotBall: Corrie picks it up at the climax [[spoiler: when she realizes she's being followed but doesn't bother trying to escape to a safe place. It's {{lampshaded}}, with Corrie berating herself for her stupidity, and she drops the ball in time for the ChaseScene.]]
32	* ImAHumanitarian: [[spoiler: The bear victims were actually attacked by a small group of unemployed, mercury poisoned miners who had to get something to eat and were crazy enough to eat anything. This is also the case in "The Adventure of Aspern Hall", where the murderer, also mercury posioned, develops a taste for human flesh.]]
33	* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Betty Brown Kermode is KilledOffscreen by Ted Roman, a victim of the mercury poisoned land she kept secret.]] Pendergast figures that [[spoiler: Roman wasn't aware of the mercury poisoning]] and says it was simply poetic justice.
34	* TheMadHatter: There really isn't an example of the trope, but [[spoiler: an actual mad hatter appears in "The Adventure of Aspern Hall". In fact the dead miners, the arsonist's insanity, and the secret that Betty Brown Kermode is willing to kill for all stem from the very thing that makes hatters mad: Mercury.]]
35	* MaskOfSanity: [[spoiler: Ted Roman. Introduced as a LoveInterest for Corrie Swanson. Described as totally smitten with Corrie by Stacy Bowdree. Turns out to be the MoodSwinger PyroManiac arsonist.]]
36	** In "The Adventure of Aspern Hall", we have [[spoiler: Sir Percival, who gives no indication of the fact that he eats people at night.]]
37	* MissingEpisode: In-universe, the plot revolves around a "lost" Sherlock Holmes story entitled "The Adventure of Aspern Hall".
38	* MoodSwinger: The arsonist, when revealed, switches between a veneer of calmness and a frothing mania. It's portrayed as something horrifying. In fact, it's implied that [[spoiler: one of the arsonist's victims found his mood swings scarier than the fire he started; the victim tried to escape ''into the fire'']].
39	* MonsterClown: The arsonist wears a clown mask.
40	* {{Pastiche}}[=/=]ShowWithinAShow: A chapter is devoted to "The Adventure of Aspern Hall", a Sherlock Holmes story. In-universe, it's a lost story by Creator/ArthurConanDoyle. In reality, it's these two tropes. Also, it's relevant to the plot.
41	* NotSoStoic: After discovering that [[spoiler: Corrie had not in fact been burned alive, Pendergast, who has very rarely showed much emotion in the past and has himself mentioned being uncomfortable with physical affection, hugs Corrie and cries.]]
42	* PyroManiac: The arsonist.
43	* RussianRoulette: Pendergast starts an impromptu game of this with a CrazySurvivalist. [[EveryoneHasStandards The survivalist himself finds it crazy]], but plays along. It was really a way for Pendergast to have the survivalist sell information and Pendergast hints that it may have been a FalseRoulette.
44	* SeenItAll: Pendergast explains that Doyle's reaction to Wilde's story - a reaction that sends Doyle [[VomitDiscretionShot to the toilet]] - is important because it's an subversion of this trope. Doyle served as a ship's doctor in the late 1800s, meaning that he would already have seen a lot of horrible things. Anything that would drive him to vomit would have to be truly ghastly.
45	* ShellShockedVeteran: Captain Stacy Bowdree, the descendant of one of the bear victims. [[spoiler: She was discarged due to PTSD.]]
46	* [[TownWithADarkSecret Ski Resort With A Dark Secret]]: The secret of Roaring Fork is that [[spoiler: it was once the site of a silver smelting plant...meaning that the ground is contaminated with mercury.]]
47	* ThisBearWasFramed: [[spoiler: The miners were thought to be killed by a bear when one was seen munching on a victim's remains. The real killers were a group of insane cannibals - but they were too crazy to frame the bear; it was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. On the other hand, the murderer of "The Adventure Of Aspern Hall" delibrately made his killings look like a wolf attack. He didn't actually have a wolf to frame though, since wolves were extinct in Britain.]]
48	* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Ted Roman, the arsonist, ''thinks'' he's this. Really, he's just completely out of his mind.]]

Context Literature / WhiteFire