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Smokescreen    by Nancy Hartry Amazon.com order for
Smokescreen
by Nancy Hartry
Order:  USA  Can
Tundra, 2013 (2013)
Hardcover, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Nancy Hartry's Smokescreen is a YA mystery set in northwestern Ontario, Canada. There, seventeen-year-old Kerry, a dance student from Toronto, has taken a summer job as 'a cottage development technician with the Department of Forestry and Parks'. She's totally out of her element, unprepared for bloodthirsty blackflies and hot firefighters. Luckily, her new partner, Yvette, knows the ropes, despite looking 'straight off the cover of Vogue magazine.'

Kerry and Yvette party with some of the guys and befriend Didier and Bear Whisperer Aubrey. Yvette loses her hot pink lighter at the party. Then the forest fires start and their misogynist boss, Buzz Harcourt, drafts them into kitchen duties at base camps close to the action. When Yvette's lighter is found where the fires was started on Trout Lake, she's terrified that it will be identified as hers and she'll be accused of setting the fire.

The girls are kept busy cooking for the firefighters and cleaning up, eventually supervised by professional chef Rolf and his helper Slash. Kerry and Aubrey grow closer, despite Yvette warning her about him. Tension rises. Aubrey confides his concern about what's happening to the bears in the area - too many orphaned cubs are showing up. And he warns Kerry of 'crazy things going on' and to be careful who she trusts.

As the fires and the danger escalate, Kerry and Yvette find themselves in the middle of it all, betrayed by the one they trust the most. When the ash settles, the bear poachers and arsonists get what they deserve, while Kerry and Yvette become friends for life.

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