Dead Center
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Hastings chases a serial killer who preys on the glitterati
Tony Frazer takes a wide berth when he sees the homeless man. A millionaire playboy, he does not consort with street people, and is in the process of skirting the derelict, eyes averted, when the stranger calls his name. The king of the society pages turns just in time to be struck by three silenced bullets, slumping to his knees and dying there in the gutter.
Although witnesses insist the killer was a homeless man, homicide lieutenant Frank Hastings sees signs of a professional at work—the kind who kills quietly, then disappears into the night. In fact, as Hastings learns, the killer thinks himself a crusader—a kind of Robin Hood with a pistol—and he has many more assassinations planned. San Francisco society had better take cover, for this killer has a thirst for blue blood.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The latest Lt. Hastings mystery ( Hire a Hangman ) is a casually accurate procedural rich in plot, characters--including suspects--and San Francisco color. From Valentine's Day through the next six weeks, a series of powerful and wealthy men are shot to death on the street, the weapon the .22 favored by professional hitmen. The cops finally connect the victims as rather nasty members of the ultra-exclusive Rabelais Club (a combination of the real-life Bohemian and Pacific Union clubs). Old scandals (a hooker's death covered up, a notorious high-stakes poker circle), heavy political and media pressure and glimpses (for us) of the killer's mind-set lead up to Hastings's harrowing, climactic confrontation with the murderer. The range of characters is great, including an old sportsman/socialite, an obsequious professional waiter, a garish fat lady running a halfway house. And while semi-stolid Hastings is in charge, his co-head of Homicide, the appealing Lt. Friedman (``I spent a lot of time in school standing in the corner. . . . I figured it was time well spent'') provides crucial balance. First-rate.
