Dead Aim

All murder victims are equal, according to Lt. Frank Hastings. But the higher-ups tell him to put everything on the back burner to find out who killed a young woman in Pacific Heights, San Francisco's gold coast. She and her gigolo were found nude, dead and probably tortured.

Hastings agonizes over his commitment to another case. Two nights earlier, someone mugged and killed a housewife, which destroyed a family. Duty and politics force him to work around the clock on both cases, chasing leads in elegant drawing rooms and dark, dank alleyways. In a few violent hours, he brings both killers to bay. Can he bring them in without bloodshed... principally his own?

"Involving...boils with life." (Ross MacDonald)