Detective Paddy Durr
is back in
Burnt to a Crisp
,
Michael O'Keefe's third installment in the
Durr series
. This time out, life hasn't gotten any easier for Paddy and his heroic wife,
Mairead
.
She is near death from
9/11 cancers
, contracted from her time volunteering at Ground Zero after the attacks nineteen years earlier. Paddy is distraught, operating under the prospect of losing her.
An enemy from within the
NYPD
has bared her fangs and is coming after his job.
Dr. Deborah Levine
is a department psychiatrist out to get Paddy's guns taken away, in retribution for scorning her sexual advances a year before. She tried then without success, but this time she has the power of the
corrupt mayor
and his
insidious wife's
backing.
Through all of this, Paddy has just caught an
Arson/Triple Homicide
that no one but him and his partner seem to want solved. A
drug lord
from the neighborhood has placed an embargo on the witnesses, refusing to let them tell Durr what he already knows. He has a suspect and a motive, but only reluctant witnesses. Forensic evidence is at a premium, but when fire is a killer's
modus operandi
, there is little left that didn't burn away in the flames.
With cancer destroying his personal life, and a vindictive doctor trying to end his career, the clock is ticking. Durr will need a miracle to save his wife and career, and some luck and old-school detective work to solve his case and give his
innocent victims justice
. But time isn't on Paddy's side, and he has learned not to expect a miracle from a God he is sure has forsaken him.
It's no wonder Durr is