Extenuating Circumstances
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
To PI Harry Stoner, Ira Lessing had everything to live for: money, a beautiful wife, good friends, and a reputation that would do credit to a saint. But Lessing disappeared one hot July night, and Stoner knew in his gut that the man was dead. Years on the street had taught Stoner that no man is what he seems. Peeling away layers to the bone would reveal what had become of Lessing. It would lead Stoner into the underbelly of Cincinnati, into the places where desire and violence meet, into the darkest byways of the human heart where his own values would be tested to the bloody limit, by acts of love—and murder.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fully realized characters, complex plots and excellent writing are the qualities that attract readers to Valin's series about Harry Stoner, private eye. In his eighth appearance, Stoner describes his assignment to find missing Ira Lessing, a businessman from Cincinnati, Ohio, beloved for his generous help to troubled teens. The detective is with Lessing's childlike wife Janey, and his partner, Len Trumaine, when they learn that Lessing's body has been discovered, brutally beaten. A punk teenager, Terry Carnova, not only confesses but boasts of killing Lessing, but Stoner isn't convinced. Terry's pathetic lover Kitty insists the murderer is ``Tommy T,'' a male hustler who caters to masochists. With this information, the detective gropes his way through the fog that shrouds the facts about the victim and several suspects in the case. The story stands as a ``mainstream'' novel as well as a fine mystery. Mystery Book Club alternate.
