Hell's Kitchen

Author: Jeffrey Deaver
Genre: Crime
Rating:

Say ‘Jeffrey Deaver’ and what comes to mind are The Bone Collector and the dashing quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme. Hell's Kitchen, however, is not a Lincoln Rhyme who-dun-it.
It is about John Pellam who is a Hollywood location scout. He’s filming a documentary on Hell’s Kitchen, one of New York's rough neighbourhoods, capturing memories of long time residents on tape. His star is Ettie Washington, an elderly woman who’s a natural story teller. One evening, he arrives at her tenement to discover a raging fire that kills a little boy. Ettie becomes the No.1 suspect.
As other fires are set off in the area while she is in jail, the cops realize that she couldn’t have set off the fire, but they believe she hired an arsonist to collect insurance money.
Pellam sets out to find the truth and clear Ettie’s name. He needs Ettie to finish his documentary, but he’s also grown fond of the feisty old woman.
The story takes us through the dark alleys of Hell’s Kitchen and into smoke filled bars. Deaver creates a tense, simmering atmosphere that explodes right at the end.
At the same time, his characters are entirely believable and real. The bond between Pellam and Ettie, the unlikely friendship between Pellam and a little street urchin, Ismail, make it a very human story. You find yourself rooting for Ismail.
Read the book. It’s a crime story with a human touch. This one also kept me up at night till I turned over the last page. It was worth the bleary eyes in the morning.