The Dark Door (Constance and Charlie Series #2)

Private investigator Charlie Meiklejohn is called in by insurance companies to follow the trail of a suspected serial arsonist. The arsonist, Carson Danvers, has been on a fanatical crusade, since the loss of his wife and son, burning down buildings in an effort to stop the manifestations of a malfunctioning alien space probe, which has caused random outbreaks of madness and murder that occur in old, abandoned wooden buildings. Meiklejohn begins following the criminal trail’s but finds himself teaming up with his quarry to face the much deeper problem.