An undercover investigator works to bring down an arson crew in New York City

The firefighting crew of Engine 99 has spent years rushing fearlessly into the hot zone of major fires across New York City. This tight-knit, four person unit has faced danger head-on, saving countless lives and stopping raging fires before they can cause major destruction.

They’ve also stolen millions from banks, jewelry stores, and art galleries. Under the cover of saving the city, these men have used their knowledge and specialist equipment to become the most successful heist crew on the East Coast.

Andy Nearland, the newest member of Engine 99, is good at keeping secrets. She’s been brought on to help with their biggest job ever — hitting New York’s largest private storage facility, an expensive treasure trove for the rich and famous.

She’s also an undercover operative, charged with bringing the crew to justice.

Keeping Andy’s true motives hidden proves more and more dangerous as tempers flare and loyalties are tested. And as the clock counts down to the crew’s most daring heist yet, her cover might just go up in flames…

This is only the second novel by Candice Fox that I’ve read. Given how much I enjoyed this and Gathering Dark, it’s a bit strange that I haven’t read more. Devil’s Kitchen is a fast-paced, engaging mystery with great characters. I enjoyed this a lot.

A highly-skilled arson crew has been pulling off impressive and dangerous jobs around New York City. They’ve been getting away with it for years, covering up their heists with actual fires. You see, when you’re a member of the FDNY, you have pretty good access to fires, and every reason to be there. A member of the crew, however, is suspicious of his teammates and believes they have killed his partner. To get to the bottom of the mystery, he connects with Andy Nearland, an undercover investigator of prodigious talents (and a difficult past of her own, which we learn about over the course of the novel). Nearland’s FBI handlers decide that she should also investigate the crew’s crimes, and build a case to bring them down. Nearland’s a great guide to these worlds (the FDNY and also criminal underworld), and she’s a solid protagonist — she’s driven, highly-gifted, but also not always capable of separating herself entirely from the cases she takes on. She has a penchant for crossing lines, getting involved with people she shouldn’t, and takes incredible risks to find the information she needs. But, as readers will see, she has the talents and smarts to back up these risks.

What follows is an often tense story as Andy insinuates herself into the crew, and spies on them all as she tries to get to the bottom of what happened to the missing woman, and also an ever-more-dangerous investigation into the lives and jobs of Engine 99’s members. Readers are introduced to a world of toxic masculinity, hazing, and disregard for rules and the wellbeing of outsiders. The different personalities that make up the crew are well-drawn and distinct. The various side-characters we meet along the way are likewise realistic, and nobody feels like a cookie-cutter, central-casting actor dropped into the story.

If you like fast-paced stand-alone mysteries and thrillers, then I would certainly recommend Devil’s Kitchen. I have the author’s two previous novels, The Chase and Fire With Fire, already, and I’ll have to get to those as soon as I can.

*

Candice Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen is out now, published by Forge Books in North America and in the UK.

Also on CR: Review of Gathering Dark

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Review copy received via NetGalley