Hell's Kitchen

By: Jeffery Deaver

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

The New York Times best-selling author of The Empty Chair and The Devil's Teardrop is back, displaying his "ticking-bomb suspense" (People) in this never-before-published thriller.

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 residents, such as Ettie Washington, in a no-budget documentary film. But when a suspicious fire ravages the elderly woman's 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 Hell's Kitchen - and John Pellam - at its blackened and searing epicenter.

©2001 Jeffery Deaver (P)2009 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"[A] taut, well-paced, and highly atmospheric thriller." (Amazon.com review)

Good if creepy story

I debated between a three and a four. This is not great, but a good story about an interesting neighborhood in NYC - a part of the city I only rarely visited when I lived there and about which I knew very little. It is a bit violent, perhaps gratuitously, but it was a fun listen. I listen to keep myself entertained while running, doing yard work etc. So I'm not after great literature, at least not most of the time. And this kept my interest.

John Pelham Keeps You Hooked

This is the third novel in the Location Scout/John Pelham series. Pelham is a film director, filmaker and a location scout with a dark past. In Hells Kitchen, he is filming a verbal history documentary of the infamous New York neighborhood.

And true to form, the 72 year old star subject of his film is suddenly accused of arson and murder, placing Pelham square in the middle of an intense and harsh police investigation. Its true to form because like the first two novels, the police and fire inspectors are laser focused on the wrong suspect. But even with the obvious formula, the remarkable characters make this a really fun listen.

Holter Graham does a great job with every voice.

slow in the Beginning but a very good ending

When I 1st started reading this book I thought this is kind of boring I'm not sure if that all finished it. Then it kind of gets you interested interested in finding out like what really happened and why. And then you get to the end and it blows your mindWhen I 1st started reading this book I thought this is kind of boring I'm not sure if that all finished it. Then it kind of gets you interested interested in finding out like what really happened and why. And then you get to the end and it blows your mind

Yawn....

The book never grabbed me and I waded through the listen while driving on a boring interstate. It was, apparently, well researched as it wound up around one of the New York City's famous neighborhoods. The book contains punks and tycoons as well as a fair plot. But, in the end, I'll never get that time back.