"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 aggressions pounding clay in a beginners' pottery class. But someone has mistaken 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. Can Cat catch a killer before the past goes up in flames?