Don't drink...go to meetings...and investigate a murder.

When Bruce Kohler wakes up in detox on the Bowery on Christmas Day, he knows he needs to change his life. His biggest fear is dying of boredom if he stays sober. Instead, he's catapulted not only into a murder investigation but into the all-absorbing world of recovery in the 12-step programs in New York. Not drinking is just the beginning.

When a detox buddy unexpectedly dies in the next bed, Bruce cares more than he expected to. It's only a few stops on the subway from the Bowery to Park Avenue, where the victim's family is trying to act as if their alcoholic black sheep, with his trust fund and his unfortunate nasty streak, had not lost everything except the family secrets.

Helping Bruce in his quest to stay sober and find the killer are two friends he thought he'd lost: a computer wiz and the world's most codependent addictions counselor. In the corporate towers or the church basements of New York, they're bound to catch a murderer.

IN STORES APRIL 15.