NYPD detective Ben Tolliver tracks a killer with a taste for expensive call girls
When the escort service sends Caroline to the Plaza, she dreams of a handsome client with an open wallet. Instead, she is greeted by the businessman’s assistant, who insists on vetting the girl before she can start work. At her command, Caroline undresses, turns around, and feels something tighten around her throat.
Homicide detective Ben Tolliver is surprised to get called in for a murder at the Plaza. Though Midtown may not be his beat, sex crimes are, and this one is especially chilling. Caroline was strangled, her face and body coated with grotesque makeup. The murder is baffling enough, but when the dead girl’s millionaire father gets involved, Tolliver’s investigation threatens to erupt into a circus where the main attraction is a killer who paints women like clowns.
James Neal Harvey spent fifteen years in the advertising business before selling his company and devoting himself to writing. He made his hardcover debut in 1990 with By Reason of Insanity, which introduced NYPD detective Ben Tolliver.
Harvey followed Tolliver through four more novels, including Painted Ladies, Mental Case, and the concluding thriller, Dead Game. In 2011, Harvey published the nonfiction Sharks of the Air, a detailed history of the development of the first jet fighter, and in 2014, he returned to thrillers with The Big Hit, a mystery about an assassin.