PRO CONNECT
KURT KAMM
Malibu resident Kurt Kamm has used his contact with CalFire, Los Angeles County and Ventura County Fire Departments, and the ATF, as well as his experience in several devastating local wildfires, to write fact-based (“faction”) firefighter mystery novels. Kurt has attended classes at El Camino Fire Academy and trained in wildland firefighting, arson investigation and hazardous materials response. He is also a graduate of the ATF Citizen's Academy. Recently he rode with Los Angeles County Fire Department's famed Urban Search & Rescue Task Force while completing work on Tunnel Visions, a USAR mystery in which terrorists threaten the Southern California water supply. Tunnel Visions will be released in September 2014.
Kurt has built an avid fan base among first responders and other readers. Each of his firefighter mysteries features a firefighter skilled in a particular discipline (wildland, arson investigation, paramedic, hazardous material response, and search and rescue). His first novel, One Foot in the Black (2008) has become a favorite of the men on the fire lines. Subsequent novels, Red Flag Warning: A Serial Arson Mystery (2010) and Code Blood (2012) have won numerous fiction awards. Hazardous Material, released in 2013, received the Hackney Award for best novel of the year.
In 2006, one of the infamous Malibu wildland fires, the 60 mile-per-hour Santa Ana wind-driven Canyon Fire, burned to Kurt’s front door and destroyed the homes of several neighbors. Kurt said the lessons he learned from the County Fire Department while writing his first book helped him save his home.
A graduate of Brown University and Columbia Law School, Kurt was previously a financial executive and semi-professional bicycle racer. He was also Chairman of the UCLA/Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Foundation for several years and is a supporter of the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.
Visit Kurt Kamm's first responder/author website www.kurtkamm.com to see stunning fire pictures, and for information about his novels and free chapter downloads.
Kurt Kamm LITERARY AWARDS
HAZARDOUS MATERIAL (MCM Publishing 2013)
Best Novel 2013 – Public Safety Writers Association
Winner of the 2012 Hackney Literary Award for best novel of the year ($5,000 PRIZE)
Reader's Favorite 2013 – Finalist – Urban Fiction
The 2012 Dana Award – Finalist
Excerpt published in Birmingham Arts Journal http://www.birminghamartsjournal.com/pdf/baj10-2.pdf
ONE FOOT IN THE BLACK (MCM Publishing 2012)
The 2012 USA Best Book Awards – Fiction: General – Finalist
The 2013 Beverly Hills Book Awards – Fiction: General – Finalist
Excerpt published in Felons, Flames and Ambulance Rides: Stories About America's Public Safety Heroes
CODE BLOOD (MCM Publishing 2011)
Writer’s Type - First Chapter Competition. January 2011- First Place
2012 International Book Awards - Fiction: Cross Genre Category – First Place
NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE BOOK AWARDS® – Faction (fiction based on fact) – WINNER OF THE 2012 AWARD
The 2012 USA Best Book Awards - Fiction: Horror - WINNER
LuckyCinda Publishing Contest 2013 FIRST PLACE – THRILLER
Reader's Favorite 2013– Finalist – Horror Fiction
Knoxville Writer’s Guild - 2011 Novella or Novel Excerpt – 2nd Place
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RED FLAG WARNING (MCM Publishing 2010)
The Infinite Writer– Mystery 2010 – First Place
The Written Art Awards - Mystery/Thriller 2010 – First Place
Royal Dragonfly – Mystery Category 2011 – First Place
“An assured, very memorable LA thriller, with an appealing hero readers will want to meet again.”
– Kirkus Reviews
A determined loner battles both California wildfires and memories of a difficult childhood.
All Greg Kowalski, a teenager from Saginaw, Mich., ever wanted was a sense of family. His volatile father, a Harley-driving firefighter, demeans Greg and his younger sister Vicky with verbal attacks and physically abuses their quiet, deferential mother. Throughout his adolescence, Greg dreams of escape but nurses a desire to connect with others. Upon graduating from high school, a captain at the fire station offers Greg a chance to enter a training program at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, an opportunity that Greg hopes will impress his father. A curt, heartless dismissal from his family leads to a cross-country bus ride and a strenuous apprenticeship learning the skills required for fighting fire in the brush. After the gig ends, Greg drives south to Malibu, daring to survive the notorious four-week training camp required to join a fire-suppression unit with the LA County Fire Department. Life in the academy is brutal, but it is here that Greg begins to discover the family he never had: fellow trainee Luis Zambrano, who dreams of a better life for his wife and newly born child; Hector Wells, a rootless Native American with years of service as a firefighter; and Capt. Tom Bratton, a gruff yet kindhearted superior who takes a liking to Greg, offering home-cooked meals and sage advice. An unpredictable wildfire in the middle of the dry season, raging over the hills north of Los Angeles, gives Greg plenty of firsthand experience but tests his resolve and dedication to the profession. Kamm, whose considerable research lends the novel a keen sense of verisimilitude, structures the narrative by unfolding two storylines at once: one tracking Greg’s budding career and the other exploring the gloomy events of his childhood. While the pedestrian prose detracts from the effectiveness of the story, Greg’s efforts to shake loose of his past make for a compelling, fast-paced read.
A turbulent, thoughtful story of putting out fires, both personal and professional.
Pub Date:
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
A disturbing fictional trip to the dark underside of Los Angeles life.
When Los Angeles County Fire paramedic Colt Lewis’ ambulance pulls up at the scene of a single-vehicle accident at the outset of Kamm’s (Hazardous Material, 2013, .etc) latest novel, he’s shocked to find a local policeman haplessly trying to help a semiconscious young woman whose leg has been badly mangled—and whose right foot is missing. Even after Lewis and his partner stabilize and load the young woman in their van, the foot—presumably severed at the scene—is nowhere to be found. The combination of that strange fact and the girl’s vulnerability triggers Lewis’ heroic impulses and sets into motion the bizarre quest at the heart of this leanly and effectively told noir novel about the dark byways of LA. “Don’t get emotionally involved with your patients,” Lewis is told. “If you start asking ‘what if’ it never stops.” But Lewis can’t help himself. He obsesses about the injured young woman, daydreaming about what her life was like before the accident. Soon he begins using his days off to investigate the missing foot, and this leads him into worlds of illegal medical labs, black-market bazaars of body parts and an entire crime ring that operates in the shadows. Kamm fills these worlds with a big cast of sharply drawn, odd characters, some merely eccentric but many others evil and predatory (Kamm skillfully dramatizes the day-to-day life of LA paramedics; there’s an excellent police procedural running alongside the more exotic plotlines here). Lewis’ expanding search forces him to examine his own motives, and Kamm expertly ratchets up the narrative tension, peeling back multiple layers of twisted mysteries. A tense, atmospheric climax in the tunnels under a sprawling university will keep readers turning pages right to the very satisfying conclusion.
An assured, very memorable LA thriller, with an appealing hero readers will want to meet again.
Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0979855139
Page count: 233pp
Publisher: MCM Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
CODE BLOOD: National Indie Excellence Book Awards - Faction - Winner, 2012
CODE BLOOD: International Book Awards -Fiction:Cross Genre - FIRST PLACE, 2012
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