Sy Kramer was handsome, well-dressed, well-heeled - and dead. A blackmailer who'd pushed one of his victims too far, Kramer had earned his last payoff: a bullet in the head. Which of Kramer's pigeons had so much at stake that murder seemed like the best bet? Was it the politician's wife, anxious to conceal her shadowy past? Or the soft drinks king? Or was it that unknown victim who had fattened Kramer's bankroll by the thousands? Or perhaps another blackmailer muscling in on Kramer's territory? The boys of the 87th have a tough case to crack. They must catch the desperate killer before he or she strikes again, and Kramer's blackmail victims are decidedly unwilling to cooperate.
A homicide in the 87th Precinct wasn't exactly front-page news. But two murders made headlines. Both added up to big trouble. Pretty redhead Annie Boone lay facedown on a liquor store floor, surrounded by broken bottles and riddled with bullets. The boys of the 87th didn't have a suspect without an irontight alibi - or a reason for someone to shoot Annie dead. Detective Roger Havilland lay faceup in a grocery store's front window, a shard of glass piercing his jugular. A crazy bag lady was Detective Steve Carella's best witness. But a mistake by Carella's new partner Cotton Hawes could put them both in the line of fire - where a wrong move could get a good cop killed.
Once she'd been a dancer. Now she lies on a sidewalk, her blood seeping into the snow. Detectives Carella, Kling, Meyer and Brown are learning all about ice; in a multimillion-dollar showbiz scam, in the glittering diamonds that spill out of a dead man's vest, in the veins of a small-time pusher. As the cops scramble for evidence, as the city shivers, a killer is one step ahead, and the heat is still on.
Wealthy Douglas King has received a ransom demand. But it isn't his own son who has been kidnapped, it's his chauffeur's. If he pays up, it could ruin the biggest deal he ever made in his life, and throw away his future. But is the alternative to sacrifice a child's life? Detective Steve Carella and the rest of the 87th Precinct can only keep trying to nab the kidnappers and hope that Doug King decides to give them the payoff. But if King doesn't play ball, they'll have a cold-blooded murder on their hands ...
Gloria Stanford was very sexy, very rich and very, very dead. Found in her plush, city apartment, she had been shot twice in the heart. All her credit cards and i.d. were gone but apart from that there seemed no motive at all. It's only when the detective-in-charge, Steve Carella, starts to receive bizarre cryptic notes through the mail that he realises that something bigger than a simple homicide is going on. For it seems the 'Deaf Man' is back - a notorious crook and killer who has a morbid fascination with puzzles and anagrams. Long thought dead, he's back on the loose and wants his long-hidden millions back...Thus begins a roller-coaster ride of betrayal, double-bluff and violence with an enormous golden haul at the end of it...
The 87th Precinct patrolmen aggressively pursue a mugger who preys on women after he puts one victim in the hospital and another in the morgue, but patrolman Bert Kling has a personal reason for stalking the criminal.