TOO HOT TO HANDLE

The suspicious death of an old woman in a tenement fire leads Chief Fire Marshall Benjamin Pedley on a 24 hour chase for the arsonist and a quarter of a million stolen dollars. He's also introduced to the confirmed criminality of the matriarch's unscrupulous family and an entangled web of shady doings. Sustained by pep pills he manages to unearth the central villain though most of the characters share in the guilt. Tough talking but far-fetched.