Hell's Kitchen
Perennial bestselling author Jeffrey Deaver's alter ego, William  Jefferies, knows a thing or two about Hollywood. So does John Pellam, the hero  of his previousShallow GravesandBloody River Bluesand the latest in the series,Hell's Kitchen. Pellam made a name for himself as a director before a stint in San Quentin took  him off the fast track. Since his release he's been earning his keep as a location scout and not so incidentally shooting a documentary about New York's Hell's Kitchen, which he hopes will propel him back into the career that skidded south after he ran afoul of the law.Pellam has found the star of his new film, one Ettie Washington, who has lived  in the neighborhood for decades and is the perfect voice to tell the story of an area that's losing its old-time seediness to urban gentrification. But then Ettie's tenement goes up in a blaze that kills a small boy and puts her right in the public eye--as a suspect. It's only the beginning of a series of fires, each one more deadly. The cops know Ettie couldn't have set the others, since she's been in jail, but they're convinced she knows who did. Pellam has his own reasons for getting Ettie off the hook and embarking on a search for the real pyromaniac. Jeffries  saves the best one for the very end of this taut, well-paced, and highly  atmospheric thriller.--Jane Adams