Writing as William Jeffries, New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Deaver, the βmaster of ticking-bomb suspenseβ (People), delivers a thrilling novel that βexposes the brutal side of the Big Appleβ (Publishers Weekly).
Every New York City neighborhood has a story, but what John Pellam uncovers in Hell's Kitchen has a darkness all its own. The Hollywood location scout and former stuntman is in the Big Apple hoping to capture the unvarnished memories of longtime Kitchen residentsβsuch as Ettie Washingtonβin a noβbudget documentary film. But when a suspicious fire ravages the elderly womanβs crumbling tenement, Pellam realizes that someone might want the past to stay buried.
As more buildings and lives go up in flames, Pellam takes to the streets, seeking the twisted pyromaniac who sells services to the highest bidder. But Pellam is unaware that the fires are merely flickering preludes to the arsonist's ultimate masterpiece, a conflagration of nearly unimaginable proportion, with Hellβs KitchenΒβand John Pellamβat its blackened and searing epicenter.