Murder in Hell's Kitchen

by Lee Harris

Book Overview

"Lee Harris, author of the beloved Christine Bennett holiday mystery series, gives us a new detective and a grittier neighborhood in Murder in Hell's Kitchen, but her storytelling skill remains top quality."--Tony Hillerman

After twenty years of loyal service, Detective Jane Bauer is just two months and one case away from leaving the NYPD for a cushy desk job. Her last assignment: working for a special unit that tackles unsolved...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0449007340
• ISBN13: 9780449007341
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Fawcett Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

A new series by a great mystery author

Detective Jane Bauer is pulled of what she believes to be the case of her career to work with a special unit tackling unsolved crimes. She is planning to leave the NYPD soon for a desk job with an insurance company. Her new partners are Gordon Defino and Sean MacHovec. It is soon evident that MacHovec prefers to stay in and work the phones. Defino and Jane do the legwork. They were to re-investigate the death of Arlen Quill. Quill had been found stabbed to death in the entry of his apartment building. When they begin investigating, they find that everyone has moved from the apartment building. Considering that it is a rent-controlled building, this alone is suspicious. Then they find out that there were other deaths that in and of themselves were not suspicious but when you put them all together, they were.On top of all this, Jane is going through some changes in her life. Recently she split up with Hack. He's married and his daughter was getting suspicious. And she's moving into a new apartment. Then the letter arrives and complicates her life even more.She ends up going to Omaha to try to find one of the former tenants who might have much needed information. From that trip, she is concerned that she was followed. The case takes on a different tempo. She ends up putting herself in danger in her attempts to solve it.I really like Jane. She is a complex character but yet she is human. New York is always a great setting for a mystery with a detective for the protagonist. The plot takes many twists and turns before everything is discovered. It is very well written.I have always enjoyed Lee Harris' other series starring ex-nun Christine Bennett. The two series are very different and I think that is a good thing.I highly recommend this new series and cannot wait for the next book to be published.

New Lee Harris character solves cold crime from past

We're familiar with solving old crimes from the author's ex-nun Christine Bennett series, now some 15 or so books in that set. As devoted fans, we were delighted when Harris set out to give us a new heroine, NYPD Detective Jane Bauer. Bauer is nearing her 20 years of service, with every intention of "pulling the pin" (retiring), but is given a special assignment with several other detectives to solve an old case from years earlier. When Jane discovers that in addition to the murder victim, a few other folks who lived in the same building are also dead, she launches a sequence of investigations that eventually flush out the truth, mostly from clues that were never worked the first time around. Her male sidekicks Defino and MacHovek help her with much of the legwork, but it's Jane's trip to the Midwest that really brings things into focus midway through what turns out to be a fairly complex plot. While much of the form of this book -- the cold case, the New York setting, and a female lead with both smarts and a winning way of dealing with people -- reminds us of the other Harris series, we have here more of a police procedural without having to rely on "helpers" to track clues from official sources. Jane is a likable gal, as a couple of men that warm up to her in the story find out. Meanwhile, all of Harris's skills are on display, including a plot with just enough intricacy to engage, enough characters to provide variety, and a solid writing style that pleases us from start to finish. We not only recommend this new entree, but will also no doubt anxiously await another outing with Bauer. Will she retire or not ?!

This is a GREAT book!

I read a lot of mystery books. And most of them are about women and/or by women. And I've read all of the Lee Harris Christine Bennett books. But this book is the best mystery I've read in a long, long time! And nothing against the Bennett books but this one is a cut way above them. It is much more than a police procedural - but it is that, too. Great and evolving characters, good mystery - if this is the beginning of a series, I can't wait for the next one.

A new female detective

I will admit I bought this book thinking it was another Christine Bennet book, which I had been waiting for. I have read all Ms. Harris' chapters in the life of that interesting woman. But I had only read three pages before I became lost in the world of Jane Bauer, a new and thoroughly likeable new heroine. This is not a bloody book, not a violent book, although people do die. But I like Jane (with maybe a reservation or two about her romance with a married man, although I'm sure this part is rather true to life) and I like Ms. Harris' writing style. You enter Jane's world and you could be walking right along beside her. You wll enjoy the journey and you won't have nightmares at night. A most enjoyable read that leaves you wanting to know how Jane will resolve her personal issues and what twists and turns her professional life will take. I'm ready for another episode in the life of this likeable policewoman.

exciting, stimulating gritty urban noir police procedural

After almost twenty years in the New York City Police Department, Detective Jane Bauer is near retirement and ready to start a cushy job in an insurance company. Her last three months will be spent on the newly formed cold case task force. She is assigned the case of Arlan Quill, who was killed in the entranceway of his apartment building. When she goes to talk to some of Quill's neighbor, she learns that every tenant who lived in the building while Quill resided there is gone.Nobody leaves a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan and further investigation shows that all the former tenants except one are dead and circumstances taken as a whole make it look like wholesale contract killings. Jane traces the last tenant to Omaha where she learns that he is scared for his life. Shortly afterward, he is beaten with in an inch of his life, which means there is a mole in the department who had Jane followed to her witness. When Jane returns home, she traces the killer to one of his lairs and almost loses her life in the process.Lee Bennett, the author of the cozy Christine Bennett mysteries, has written an exciting, stimulating gritty urban noir police procedural that displays the wide range of the author's talent. The heroine is a three dimensional character whose personal life shows she is a caring person while as a cop she is a dedicated pro who goes all out even with her career winding down. The plot is fast paced with never a dull moment but the heart of MURDER IN HELL'S KITCHEN are the men and women in blue who risk their lives to keep the streets safe.Harriet Klausner