All Emergencies, Ring Super — Ellen Emerson White

Once an aspiring actress, Dana Coakley has abandoned the bright lights of stardom for a less glamourous position: as superintendent of an Upper West Side apartment building. The pay isn't great, and grouting and plumbing aren't dream work, but the rent is free, and it gives her more time to work with the disadvantaged inner-city kids she tutors.

One of those kids, Travis, confides in Dana that he believes a fatal fire in a low-income housing building was actually the work of an arsonist, and not the accident it was deemed. Dana begins investigating, but her snooping unearths more questions than it answers. What does a wealthy real-estate mogul have to do with the fire? What does a teenage drug lord know about it? And can Dana-with the help of her wisecracking friends-solve the case between leaky faucets, loose tiles, and whiny tenants?