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Book Review By Heather B.
All Emergencies, Ring Super by Ellen Emerson White

Dana is an actress who lives in New York, but she is going through an identity crisis. She suddenly decided that acting was a pretty banal way to make a living, and now is a building superintendent and spends her time doing odd jobs around the building and tutoring kids at an alternative school. One of the kids she tutors tells her that he lives in a building that recently burned down. While everyone, including the FDNY, believes the fire was accidental, Travis (the kid) believes it was arson and asks Dana if she can find out who did it. Besides several people, including a couple of firefighters, dying in the fire, a man has been killed in a drive-by shooting, and Travis believes it was because he knew about the arson plot.

Dana is skeptical at first, but Travis is so convinced that she agrees to help him. She has a friend who is a cop and she thinks she can ask him, find out that the fire was an accident, and be done with it. But she finds the police to be very dismissive about the arson claims--and the fire department very defensive. Dana becomes suspicious. Is it a cover up? A conspiracy?

Dana quickly learns that a real estate mogul named Mitch Brandon has acquired the property, and that he has a history of making a number of semi-illegal real estate acquisitions. Rapidly Dana centers her investigation on Brandon. Using a friend's tickets, Dana attends an art gallery opening where she knows Brandon will be. She drops a veiled threat to ascertain his response--which is to become violent and threatening almost immediately, confirming her suspicions that he had the place burned down so he could acquire the property and put up a luxury high rise.

But before Dana can get any proof, aside from Brandon's overreaction at the party, she is kidnapped and beaten up by a group of men who threaten to kill her if she doesn't back off of the investigation. She initially is inclined to do so, but Travis again approaches her about the fire, and her friend Peggy, who has become involved in the investigation, hates the idea that Brandon has gotten to her and broken her spirit.

After some other investigating, Dana and Peggy devise a plan to sneak into Brandon's house and find paperwork verifying his involvement in another building fire--this one a gas explosion--that he doesn't know they know about. He catches them in the midst of their break-in plot and takes steps toward having them killed. Fortunately, Dana and Peggy have a friend positioned outside (dressed as a hooker) who is supposed to call the police if they fail to appear at the appointed time.


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - very humorous
How difficult to spot villain? - Moderately Challenging
Time/era of story:
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 90%
Murder of certain profession?
Kind of investigator
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
descript. of violence and chases - 10 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 40 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10 %
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Race

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status:
Motive of antagonist - money/treasure
The antagonists are: - big business leader(s)
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast
City? Yes
City: - New York

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
Unusual forms of death - flamed
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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