A fatal fire. A staged accident. A killer hiding somewhere in the smoke.When flames tear through an aging two-family flat near St. Louis's Tower Grove Park, firefighters discover the body of longtime resident Evelyn "Evie" Marino in her upstairs bedroom. At first, the explanation seems tragically ordinary: an unattended skillet, a sleeping victim, and a fast-moving fire.But veteran St. Louis Fire Department investigator Jack Mercer knows the building is telling a different story.The deepest damage is nowhere near the stove. A sealed access panel leading into the cockloft has been opened. Smoke-alarm batteries are missing. And someone carefully arranged the scene to make murder look like a cooking accident.Hours before her death, Evie had confronted someone over forged documents intended to force her from the apartment she had called home for nearly four decades. With the property worth more than ever, developers circling, illegal tenants hiding in the basement, and several people desperate to see the building emptied, the list of suspects grows quickly.Working alongside St. Louis homicide detectives, Jack must reconstruct the fire one detail at a time-from the path of the smoke to the movement of a heavy kitchen cart. Every clue exposes another lie, but each answer raises a more troubling question.Who needed Evie gone badly enough to turn her home into a death trap?As financial secrets, broken promises, and carefully concealed evidence come to light, Jack realizes the fire was more than an attempt to destroy a building. It was designed to erase the truth.But fire leaves a record-and Jack Mercer knows how to read it.Cockloft is Book 8 in The Jack Mercer Files, a gripping series of fire investigation mysteries filled with authentic detail, relentless suspense, and crimes that refuse to remain buried beneath the ashes
