Five-Alarm Fire

"Are you the person who normally checks the kiln?"

I started. He'd pronounced it "kill," like a lot of people do.

Normally, we didn't have a kill to check.



Crabby is how detective-in-training Cat Caliban has felt ever since menopause hit. Her friends think she can work off her aggression pounding clay in a beginners' pottery class. But someone has used Cat's pot for a blunt instrument and they're firing something besides clay in the art center kiln.




Now that things are really heating up, Cat's murder investigation leads to a legendary lost collection of vases once owned by an equally legendary madam from Cincinnati's bygone red-light district. Does the exquisite vase left behind at the scene of the crime prove that the Justice Collection of Rookwood Pottery still exists and if so, is the crime connected to it? Can Cat catch a killer before the past goes up in flames?