As NYPD veteran Joe Rizzo edges toward retirement, things only seem to get harder: a promise to his wife to quit smoking, a new partner, and the most baffling case of his career.

Robert Lauria was practically a hermit and was dead ten days before anyone found him. Fired from his job weeks ago, he rarely left his apartment and had no visitors except his cousin, who says she hardly knew him. So who strangled him and made tea in his kitchen? And could there be a connection to the headline-grabbing murder of a Broadway producer?

Armed with more street smarts than the Manhattan cops assigned to the more glamorous case, Rizzo and his partner, Priscilla Jackson, are tasked with navigating the labyrinths of the case and NYPD politics in order to bring the killer to justice. Full of the sounds and sights of walking the beat, Rizzo's Fire brings the streets to life in a way that no New York City crime novel has before.

Rizzo's Fire is a Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 Mysteries title.